The System of Protection of the Rights of the Child A child is a person under 18 years of age, with the exception of cases when the law provides otherwise. Due to their special status children are an exceptional group of persons. Like adults, they have the same inherent, political and civil rights. However, because of their legal incapacity children cannot represent their rights themselves. Parents or other legal representatives of the child or the state, if this is related to public interests, are in charge to defend or represent child's rights. Under the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, state policy on the protection of children's rights is stet by Seimas and the President's institution while the Government ensures implementation of this policy. Each minister is in charge of the state government area assigned to him or her. The policy of the protection of the rights of the child is related to the development and implementation of three mechanisms of policy coordination, aligned with respect to one another: · the need to create a structure and set the responsibility on the central government level for the implementation of the policy of the protection of the rights of the child: to identify one main Ministry, assigning it the state policy area of the protection of the rights of the child, set the functions of other ministries in the area of the protection of the rights of the child, set the administrative responsibility of county managers' administrations in this area. This is provided for by the Law on Amendment and Supplementing of Articles 59 and 61 of the Law on the Fundamentals of Protection of the Rights of the Child No. IX-1094 adopted by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania on September 24, 2002 (Parliamentary Record, 2002, No. 95-4090); · the need to set cooperation different actors on the municipal level and the effective program financing mechanism in the area of protection of the rights of the child; · to create ways for accumulation and exchange of the information between the central government institutions and municipal institutions which are in charge of protection of the rights of the child. On September 24, 2002, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania adopted Law No. IX-1095 on Amendment and Supplementing of Articles 7 and 8 of the Law on Local Self-Governance of the Republic of Lithuania (Parliamentary Record, 2002, No. 98-4171), whereby, as of January 1, 2003, protection of the rights of the child is assigned to the state (assigned to municipalities) functions. In relation to this municipalities will be allocated a special targeted grant to implement these functions.