Romania

Save the Children Romania is organizing the fifth Regional Meeting of NGO Children's Rights Coalitions in Europe, in Bucharest, on 27th - 30th October 2008. About 100 representatives of the civil society from 20 European countries are expected to take part in the event.

On 25th of May, the International Missing Children's Day was celebrated across Europe. It provided an opportunity to commemorate missing children, express support to parents and victims and raise awareness about the issue. Inspired by the action carried out in Canada, the forget-me-not has been adopted as a symbol for Missing Children's Day in Europe.

International Herald Tribune publishes an article about Romanian children, left behind by their parents, emigrating in search for work to the western countries of the European Union.

The article provides the reader with the sociological background of this phenomenon as well as with the psychological situation of children, whose one or both parents are working abroad. According to the official data there is 80,000 of such children (of 4 million Romanian children in total), but social workers and volunteers claim the real number is much higher.

As the Reuters agency reports Romania adopted a new computer system to tackle Internet pornography, which officials fear may rise after the country joined the European Union this year.

They say growing labour migration and easier customs controls will likely encourage the exploitation of children in the southeastern European country, which the United Nations already considers a top source of human trafficking.