site.btaOmbudsman Says At-Risk Children's Rights Hit Worst by COVID Pandemic

Sofia, November 20 (BTA) - The rights of at-risk children have been the worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic, which left 3,500 of them in total isolation, Ombudsman Diana Kovacheva said in a report. The document was prepared in connection with World Children's Day, marked on November 20, and the anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.
The report is entitled "Impact Assessment of Anti-COVID Measures on the Rights of Vulnerable Groups of Children in Bulgaria", the Ombudsman said on Saturday. It was drawn up under a project with the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC) and UNICEF.
The report reflects the children's perceptions and views of the pandemic situation and the restrictions. The assessment was made in July and August of 2021, with consultations taking place between July 22 and August 19. They involved 95 people, including 44 children from vulnerable groups aged between 8 and 18. They are poor children, children with disabilities, with special educational needs, children in residential care, unaccompanied children of refugees or delinquent children placed in group homes.
The report found that isolation was longer and stricter for children in residential care than for the rest of children in Bulgaria. Some 3,500 children were in total physical isolation for over a year. The children's social contacts were not limited by individual COVID restrictions but by an array of restrictions coupled with distance learning.
Isolation is accompanied by elevated levels of anger, anxiety, disappointment and apathy in children in residential care and institutions. Children tend to be indifferent to distance learning, according to the report, which is available on the website of the Ombudsman.DD