First National Children’s Conference for Child Participation

First National Children’s Conference for Child Participation
The First Children’s Embassy in the World Megjashi organized the First National Children’s Conference for Child Participation on the 16th of March 2010, Tuesday, at the Youth Cultural Center, Cinema “Frosina”. The conference was a part of the project Building a Culture of Child Participation, financed by the European Union, and co-financed by UNICEF.

The project Building a Culture of Child Participation started in December 2008 and included preparation of four Alternative reports about the situation with the rights of the child in the Republic of Macedonia, out of which, three were prepared by the National Coalition for children’s rights, and one was prepared by the children themselves. These reports were presented in front of the Committee for the rights of the child in Geneva on the 3rd of February 2010.

The First National Conference for Child Participation is first of its kind in Macedonia, on which the children presented the whole process of preparation of their Alternative report, presented the data from the survey they made for the needs of the report, presented the main conclusions and recommendations for improving the situation with the rights of the child in Macedonia, shared their experience from the presentation of the report on a separate session with the Committee for the rights of the child in Geneva. The conference was organized and hosted by the children themselves, which represents direct application of children’s participation in practice.

The first speaker of the conference was MA Dragi Zmijanac, Executive director and founder of the First Children’s Embassy in the World Megjashi. Other speakers on the conference were: His Excellency Mr. Erwan Fouere, the EU Special Representative and Head of Delegation of the European Commission, Mr. Sheldon Yett, Head of mission of the UNICEF in the Republic of Macedonia, Mrs. Nevena Krusharovska, Deputy Ombudsman, representatives from the Ministry of labor and social politics and the Ministry of education and science, and Mrs. Keti Jandrijeska Jovanova from the Helsinki Committee for human rights in the Republic of Macedonia.

The conference was attended by representatives from embassies, social institutions, local government, partnership and other civil society organizations and media.

During the First Children's Conference for Child Participation, a silent auction was held, which resulted in gathering 3340 denars from the sold objects. These funds will be used to form a fund for support of the children particpation in the Republic of Macedonia.