Moldovan children started collecting good and not so good news about the respect of their own rights.
JULY 04, 2008
MOLDOVAN CHILDREN STARTED COLLECTING GOOD AND NOT SO GOOD NEWS ABOUT THE RESPECT OF THEIR OWN RIGHTS.
The first Children Working Group on the monitoring of the Convention on the Rights of the Child gathered between 1 and 4 July 2008 in Chisinau, to launch a new initiative of collecting information about child rights in the Republic of Moldova.
The initiative is promoted by the Child Rights Information Center from Moldova and helps children express and make their opinions about child rights heard.
26 children, aged between 11 and 15 years, members of the Working Group on the Monitoring of the Convention on the Rights of the Child represent 12 regions of the country. They were selected through a national contest out of 200 candidates, opinion leaders or members of initiative groups in their community. The two monitoring reports for 2008 and 2009 that will be developed by the Children Working Group will be presented to the Government, Ministries, and representatives from local authorities and other adults who can contribute decisively to the realization of children's rights.
Robert Cinciuc, 11 years old, student at "Mihai Eminescu" High school from Balti, is the youngest member of the Children Working Group on the monitoring of the CRC. He says that he will start working on simple things: "I will learn more about the rights of the child and then I will tell about them to other colleagues. Then I will try - and my parents will help me - to make a sheet on the rights of the child and I will send to other children".
"In Moldova, children's rights are respected or violated every day. And this must be a permanent concern, not only once in five years, when the country presents a report to the UN Committee on Rights of the Child. That's why, through these activities, we try to make the monitoring of the Convention a permanent and conscious process", says Cezar Gavriliuc, President of the Child Rights Information Center (CRIC).
Lenuta Coniuhov, 14 years old, student at "Mihai Eminescu" High school from Ungheni, says that she participates for the first time at a seminar in Chisinau and that she is most impressed of her "colleagues from the group who are very active and have new ideas. And what I like the most is to develop big projects and to involve many people. This project suits very well with my ideas".
"Children participate to monitor their own rights" is an initiative developed by the Child Rights Information Center (CRIC) with the support of the Save the Children Sweden, OSCE Mission to Moldova, Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) and the Soros Foundation Moldova.
Together with the two reports on the respect of the rights of the child, the Working Group on the monitoring of the Convention on the Rights of the Child will contribute to the development of the pocket book "How to defend my rights", will carry out advocacy actions at national and local level and will organize, in the next two years, Gala "Children’s Rights".
Child Rights Information Center Moldova (CRIC) is a Moldovan nongovernmental organization with ten years experience in promoting child rights and children initiatives to express their opinions.
More information: Cezar Gavriliuc & Daniela Platon (CRIC) - tel.: (+373 22) 716 598, 747 813, 744 600, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Communication with the media: Aurelia & Igor Guzun (Urma ta) - tel.: (+373 22) 234.692, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
