80 stories on failure to observe children's rights presented by working group monitoring Child Rights Convention

78 stories about failures to observe children's rights in Moldovan communities have been presented by 26 children calling themselves the Working Group for monitoring the Convention for children's rights, at a workshop organized in Chisinau from 28 to 30 August by the Child's Rights Information Center (CRIC), Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the organizers, the children discussed, supported by adult experts at the workshop, on making their voice better heard, while the infos collected by the group are to reach the Government, the local authorities and other influential grownups, so that all their policies start right – with the children's right. Children, experts in children's rights, tried advocacy techniques: writing a plea letter, making a poster, giving interviews to media, wed editing etc. – all grounded on the situations they discovered as monitors in their localities. The stories collected till now, and the ones they are still working at will enter a 2008 compilation of the Working Group. According to Daniela Platon, an CRIC coordinator, till the next workshop scheduled for November, the monitors will watch the children's right to education. The children from the Working Group are aged from 11 to 15 and represent 12 areas of the country. The idea of setting up the group was put up in their first report on observing the UN Convention for the Children's Rights, called “Life in the child's eyes”, launched on 12 August. The monitoring idea is implemented by the CRIC with the support of the Swedish “Save the children” organization, the OSCE mission to Moldova, the Swedish International Development Agency SIDA and the Soros Foundation-Moldova.