Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: As there are over 50 countries participating in
the regional consultation, only a few
government representatives were given the
floor to deliever statements. Below are
summaries of the statements of Kyrgyzstan,
Serbia and Montenegro and Macedonia. 6 July 2005 – AM
Chaired by Janez Drobnic, Minister of Labour, Family and Social Affairs,
Republic of Slovenia.
KYRGYZSTAN
The representative from Kyrgyzstan said that both society and the judicial
system had changed substantially after ratification of the CRC. The country
introduced a number of legal instruments in line with the CRC, and in 2001,
the governement approved a programme for the protection of children,
and set out a series of measures to be implemented to protect the rights
of the child, and their survival.
The government is also supporting a national initiative for the protection of
individuals. This law sets out various measures to combat all forms of
violence against minors, including special measures to protect children that
have been victims of violence.
Unfortunately, he explained that laws are not always implemented the
way they are written, but that is why they are working with experts on the
family to develop a Children’s Code. Such a document would benefit from
input of NGOs, and would seek to become more concrete.
Finally, he said he hoped this conference would bring a new impetus to
eliminate all forms of violence against children and hopes to learn from
other governments about their experiences.
SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO
The Minister for Health for Serbia and Montenegro presented some recent
initiatives that had been undertaken by his government, such the training
of health staff to identify any forms of violence that might have been
perpetrated against children and the setting up of mechanisms that would
trigger responses to help victims.
He said that the practice of deliberately hitting children and young people
will become illegal, as it is to hit an adult. He suggests that society should
look at parenting as something that can be improved. He said that hitting
children was a social behaviour that needed to be worked on, in the same
way as governments on working on improving democracies, “let us act
now and proud of this in the future”, he declared, “I call on everybody to
listen carefully to children, to tell us how they feel and see these actions”.
MACEDONIA
The representative for Macedonia also listed some recent progress relating
to children and violence. Governments present, he explained, have
committed themselves to ensuring children’s rights are respected, and
they are held accountable in front of the international community. He also
confirmed that his country’s submission to the study was going to be
finalised soon. He explained that National committee was preparing an
action plan for children’s rights, covering all sections of the UNCRC, and
participation from all stakeholders have been secured, including children
and civil society. Furthermore, the office of the Ombudsperson for children
has been institutionalized, and the issue of corporal punishment had been
brought to their national agenda. Finally, he said governments should
commit to a quick change, and should not stop on paper, “we must provide
this change in life and reality if you want real results on the ground”, he
ended.
The rest of the morning is being spent in workshops on violence against
children in the home and family, in schools, in residential care and in the
community.
Outcomes of these will be posted later today.