Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: [LJUBLJANA, 6 July 2005] ā A the end of the
second day of the regional consultation for
Europe and Central Asia, the young
participants put government representatives
on the spot by engaging in a question and
answer session. Question to representative from Azerbadjan
Q: Do u think itās a good idea to include children in decision making?
Answer: of course. It is a necessity.
Q: How do you implement this?
A: In concrete terms, if we work on government programmes, we draft
something, and we then submit this to a childrenās forum. We invite NGOs
and children to comment. On the basis of comments, we adjust and submit
our programme to the cabinet and the parliament.
To the Netherlands:
Q: how are you monitoring violence in your country, and how are children
effectively consulted?
A: we have a number of programmes to fight violence against children in
the family.
Q: How are children involved?
A: I realise children should be more involved in projects, and we will
consult with youth council more in the future.
Q: has this consultation highlighted other issues?
A: yes, that child participation should be developed further. I do not think
they should be involved in decision-making, but they should be involved in
policy making.
To Romania
Q: As a citizen of your country, not as a politician, how would you criticise
the actions of your country to reduce violence against children?
A: in our country, it is political against violence, it is social service,
specialist, child council, we do have a family council childrenās council,
To Lithuania
Q: Do you think violence in the family is acceptable?
A: As an ombudsman responsible for the protection of the rights of the
child, but also a human being and mother, it is totally unacceptable. The
family is the initial springboard that makes it possible for a child to move in
life. If necessary, social workers should become to ensure violence does
not occur.
Q: Why then, is corporal punishment not prohibited in the family?
A: .Well, there are in fact laws that protect children, these have been
introduced in the administrative code, government institutions can impose
fines for instance. Next year, there will be a law presented before
parliament forbidding corporal punishment, this law will be based on the
model of Swedish law. There is currently a public debate raging in our
country.
To Bosnia and Herzegovina
Q: How do you increase awareness about violence in your country?
A: In my country, there are many programmes for child protection, there
are new laws as well because of our ratification of the CRC.
Q: Has this conference highlighted areas you want to change or adapt?
A: Yes, and as we are a young country and were at war ten years ago,
there are many practices that have changed.
A2: [Other speaker] There are a lot of changes ongoing nowadays, soon
there will be a new family law. A new criminal code has been adopted, and
there is also a council of children that involve governments, children and
NGOs, all working to implement a new strategy.
Q: Are children involved in decision making at all levels?
A: Not yet, but we are working on it.
To Estonia:
Q: Tell me how you are going to support child rights education in your
country
A: This is one of the topics we are dealing with in our curriculum. We want
to emphasise it more and more. As you said in the workshop, not all
children know what is sexual abuse, so because of that, want to
emphasise that teachers need to educate children on this topic.
Q: Is the CRC taught as a school subject? It is not in my country.
A: Yes, it is. Some childrenās foundations are also eager to talk about this.
It should also be taught in child support centers. It needs to be more and
more emphasised in school curriculums.
To Tajikistan:
Q: what has been done to protect children from violence?
A: We are working a lot on this now. We are working on a law on family
violence, and we are part of various regional taskforce groups working on
issues of violence
Q: How would define violence?
A: It is applying force on an individual in a physical or humiliating way, any
human being, not just children.
To Luxemburg
Q: How can you stop violence in schools?
A: This is a difficult question. There is violence from teachers, from other
students, often, violence is institutionalized and structured. For instance,
in Luxemburg we have many foreign pupils and they are obliged to study
in a new language, and their parents donāt speak that language. These
children might have few chances to be integrated.
On the positive side, in our schools, we have tried to introduce children in
mediation projects, so peer to peer projects, to work on conflict resolution
for instance.
Q: Slovenia is back, so I have a question for her: do you think violence in
the family is acceptable?
A: I am not from the government, but from civil society, but no, I do not.
Q: So why is it not banned?
A: I would say that after the establishment of the state, which is a fairly
new state, there was not so much space for this topic, but now it must be
put on the table urgently.
To Russia
Q: What is being done to stop violence in the media?
A: We are working on a number of childrenās programmes not reduce
violence and we are working with the media do not include violence in all
programmes.
To Azerbaijan
Q: I am from Chechnya, and in Slovenia, things are quiet, but not in other
countries, what do you think?
A: If you have in mind armed conflict, it is a big problem. And in a
contemporary world, there is nothing worse than the consequences of
armed conflict. That kind of violence starts at the instigation of older
people, however very often, the front line victims are children. This should
be reflected in this conference. They must live in peace.
To Switzerland:
Q: How will u provide information about this conference in your country?
A: To me, when there are conferences like these ones, we ensure follow-
up. Information is provided to public administration institutions, it is
integrated into our policies, and used for concrete measures. This is one of
nine consultations that will give rise to more extensive work at the UN
level, that will involve information preparation for the final world
conference in 2006.
Questions to young delegates:
Q: My question is not politically correct, however, in this conference, do
you feel that you are well treated because you are young, or because of
your ideas?
A: I hope it is about my ideas.
Q: I would like to ask some advice, when you are going back home, what
are you doing? I have a budget, and I want to pass on some messages to
children in my country? What are the highlights, and what is the best way
to reach the most amount of children?
A: In Romania, we try to get involved in NGOs to become trainers for other
young people. We try to promote peer to peer teaching, we develop
campaigns to make people aware of violence.
A2: So many young people donāt even know this conference is going on, so
you should publicise it, tell them what is going on and tell them about their
rights.
A3: In every event about young people, younger children should have a
place and share their ideas, like we share ideas from Europe and Central
Asia here.
A4: You should push the agenda, you have power as adults. Ask children
what they want, they are the ones who are being violated.
A5: I think itās important that children are involved because we are people
with a mind and desires.
A6: Itās important to say to children they have some rights and they have
to tell adults about violence.
Question to children:
For a couple of days, you have been together, so what is it that brought
you together, what was the common thread?
A1: We are united by everything. We all have that one objective which is
to prevent violence against children, everywhere, that is enough.
A2: I think it was important, we shared ideas, learned about each otherās
countries as we all came from all over the region. It is important to know
each otherās culture, as this can prevent violence in the future. When we
understand this, we are more tolerant, this way we would prevent
violence connected with it.
Q: Who from all of you here could ask the same question to your
government back home? In your country, would you get serious responses
to your questions, the same as is happening here?
A: Most of us will be comfortable to speak to people in government.
Whether we are listened to is your responsibility. Once they recognise the
CRC and Article 12 in particular, then that will be a step forward.
A: we are very disappointed that nobody from the UK could come.
Q: What are you prepared to do to improve democracy around the world?
Many young people are not interested in politics, what are you going to do
to improve interest in political issues?
A: We have to convince everyone that they are being listened to if they
speak their minds.
A2: If you are referring to voter apathy, I donāt blame them. When the
media are stereotyping them, criminalising them. They donāt hear about
things like this, governments should inform people about what is going on,
you have more influence to change things.
A3:Young people have opinions We should convince them itās about their
opinions, that itās their chance to express themselves, rather than use the
word politics.
Q: To Slovenian boy [from Slovenian Delegate]
If you were President of Slovenia, what would be the first 3 priorities to
protect childrenās rights in Slovenia?
A: Children should be heard as I am not sure there are a lot of
opportunities for them. NGOs and governments are not cooperating
enough. Second, we would write letter to everyone to inform people about
child rights, then we would send every child one copy of the CRC.
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Final word: āSo we have just acted. Now itās your turn. We cannot do
anything ourselves. Help us to make our wishes and dreams become a
reality, and please act now!!ā