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difficult by either serious disability or the need of the joint placement of siblings. The ten staff
members of the children’s home take care of the children under three in turns, which makes the
formation of personal attachment impossible. The majority of children attended kindergarten or
school outside the institution; their systematic development and engagement were ensured in the
children’s home as well.
Reménysugár Children’s Home
One hundred and twenty-two children lived in foster homes. Recreational activities offered for
children living in foster homes were occasional. In some cases older children behaved
aggressively vis-à-vis the younger ones; such cases were not always handled properly by the foster
homes’ staff. At the time of the visit, 13 children were away without permission; there were
grounds for suspecting that one of them was engaged in prostitution.
The Children’s Home provides joint placement for mothers of minor age and their children as well. Minor
mothers may continue their education with the assistance of educators and, as a result, they may
even get vocational qualifications and, later on, successfully enter the labor market. A supportive
environment strengthens the attachment between young mothers and their children, which may
lay the ground for living together as a family after they leave the system.
I made a recommendation to the Minister of Human Capacities requesting him to act more
efficiently in order to prevent children from being taken from their families due to financial
considerations, and proposed to fully eliminate the practice of placing children under twelve years
of age in institutions. In the interest of placing chronically ill or seriously disabled children with
foster parents, I proposed the amendment of Act XXXI of 1997 on the Protection of Children
and the Administration of Guardianship.
9.1.1.2. Minors serving a sentence involving deprivation of liberty109
States “shall seek to promote the establishment of laws, procedures, authorities and institutions specifically
applicable to children alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed the penal law”.110
In accordance with Section 82, Paragraph 1 of the Penal Execution Code, "convicts in juvenile penitentiary who are over eighteen but
have not reached yet twenty-one years of age shall also be treated as juveniles".
110 See Article 40, Paragraph 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
109
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