Moldovan children assess how their rights are respected

Twenty-six children aged between 11 and 15 have met in Chisinau to launch a new initiative to collect information about the observance and violation of children’s rights in Moldova. They drew up a report that will be presented to the government, ministries, representatives of local authorities and other adults that can contribute to the enforcement of children’s rights in compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Info-Prim Neo reports. The small participants in the meeting represented 12 regions of the country. They had been selected by a national contest that brought together 200 children, opinion leaders and members of community initiative groups, the Child Rights Information and Documentation Center, which proposed setting up such a working group, informs in a communique. According to the Center’s president Cezar Gavriliuc, children’s rights should be permanently monitored, not only once in five years, when the country prepares a report for the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. On the basis of the working group’s report for this year and the report for the next year that will be compiled also by children, the working group for monitoring the Convention for the Rights of the Child will work out the pocketbook “How to Defend My Rights”, will carry out propagation activities and will organize the Gala of Children’s Rights at local and national levels in the next two years, the cited source says. The Child Rights Information and Documentation Center is a Moldovan nongovernmental organization that promotes children’s rights and initiatives enabling the children to express their opinion. It has worked for ten years. The initiative “Children Monitor Observance of their Rights” is supported by a number of foreign and national donors.