Child Participation conference in Macedonia

The First Children's Embassy in the World "Megjashi" organized National Children's Conference for Child Participation on the 16th March 2010. The conference was a part of the project „Building a Culture of Child Participation", financed by the European Union and UNICEF.
The project started in December 2008 and included preparation of four alternative reports about the situation regarding 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 3rd of February 2010.The First National Conference for Child Participation is the first event in Macedonia where the children could present the whole process of preparation of their alternative report, data from the survey they made for the report and the main conclusions and recommendations for improving safeguarding the rights of the child in Macedonia. The children also 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 conference was attended by representatives from embassies, social institutions, local government, partnership and other civil society organizations and the media.

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