Vol.5, No 1, 2007 pp. 25-37
UDC 342.727-053.2     347.6(497.11)
THE RIGHT OF THE CHILD TO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION 
UNDER THE NEW FAMILY LEGISLATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA
Nevena Petrušić
Faculty of Law, University of Niš, Serbia
In the contemporary law, the child has been given the status of a legal personality which makes the child entitled to a corpus of independent and autonomous rights that are quite distinct from the rights of the parents and the family as a whole. In compliance with the contemporary concept of the rights of the child, there are two concurrent processes that can be observed in the field of expanding the legislative framework for the protection of these rights: the process of establishing special civil capacity of the child and the process of constituting the so-called participation rights of the child, with special reference to the right of the child to the freedom of expression.
The new Serbian Family Act has recognized the child's right to the freedom of expression as a qualified right which can be exercised in the field of family and other relations as well as in judicial and administrative proceedings concerning the child's rights.
The analysis of the statutory provisions on the legal proceedings for exercising the right of the child to express his/her views shows that the legislator has not provided relevant legislative instruments which would enable the child to exercise this right. In particular, the most disputable legal solutions are those pertaining to the right of the child to seek and receive all the information necessary to form his/her own views. Although the new Family Act has envisaged the right of the child to receive relevant information for the purpose of forming one's own opinion, the scope of actual implementation of this right has been laid down too narrowly as this right was originally envisaged to be exercised only in judicial and administrative proceedings where the child is expected to form and express his/her own opinion. Moreover, the new Family Act has not envisaged appropriate instruments which could help the child in case when the competent bodies of authority fail to provide the necessary information to the child.
Key words: rights of the child, Family Act, the opinion of the child.
PRAVO DETETA NA SLOBODNO IZRAŽAVANJE MIŠLJENJA
U NOVOM PORODIČNOM PRAVU REPUBLIKE SRBIJE
U savremenom pravu pravni status deteta uzdignut je na nivo pravnog subjekta, kome pripada korpus samostalnih prava, različitih i od prava roditelja i od prava porodice. Proširenje legislativnih granica autonomije deteta kao pravnog subjekta odvija se kroz dva paralelna procesa: kroz ustanovljavanje posebnih poslovnih sposobnosti deteta i kroz konstituisanje tzv. participativnih prava, među kojima poseban značaj ima pravo deteta da slobodno izrazi svoje mišljenje.
Novim Porodičnim zakonom Republike Srbije detetu je priznato pravo na slobodno izražavanje mišljenja, kao jedno kvalifikovano pravo, koje dete ostvaruje u sferi porodičnih i drugih odnosa, kao i u sudskim i upravnim postupcima u kojima se odlučuje o njegovim pravima.
Analiza zakonskih pravila kojima je procesno operacionalizovano pravo deteta na slobodno izražavanje mišljenja pokazuje da zakonodavac nije obezbedio valjane normativne instrumente koji bi omogućili da dete zaista ostvari ovo svoje pravo. Posebno su problematična zakonska rešenja u pogledu prava deteta da dobije informacije koje su mu neophodne da bi formiralo svoje mišljenje. Iako je Porodičnim zakonom predviđeno pravo deteta da blagovremeno dobije sva obaveštenja koja su mu potrebna za formiranje svog mišljenja, faktički dometi ovog prava isuviše su suženi jer je način njegovog ostvarivanja predviđen samo za slučaj da dete formira i izražava mišljenje u sudskom, odnosno upravnom postupku. Pored toga, zakonom nisu predviđeni instrumenti koje bi dete moglo upotrebiti za slučaj da oni koji imaju zakonsku dužnost da detetu pruže potrebne informacije ne ispune ovu svoju dužnost.
Ključne reči: prava deteta, Porodični zakon, mišljenje deteta.