Areas of Specialisation

Promoting children’s well-being and combatting bullying

Regarding children’s rights, the Republic of Macedonia has also signed the major international acts in this field, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. At the same time, the country has made significant steps towards improving national legislation, with the aim of assuring effective protection of the children’s rights. In spite of the improvements in the legal framework, insufficient attention is given to monitoring and to systematic data collection and analysis in the area of children’s rights. Further efforts are still needed to improve children’s health and nutrition, with Roma children being a particular concern. More also needs to be done to improve the inclusion of disadvantaged children, in particular children with disabilities, in the educational and social systems. Children with disabilities and children from the Roma community suffer the most from stigma, discrimination and segregation. Further efforts are needed to provide national institutions with the qualified staff and the appropriate infrastructure necessary to support the process of inclusion.[1]

Moreover, measures and resources for prevention of violence against children are still insufficient. Mediation and other alternatives to criminal procedure in respect of juveniles are not satisfactory, while the premises of the juvenile educational-correctional facility remain inadequate. No police stations have child-friendly detention facilities and regular training for juvenile justice professionals has yet to be introduced.


In summary, the main challenges regarding the protection of human rights include:

  • marginalization and stigmatisation of disadvantaged children (especially disabled children and Roma children), as well as exclusion from the formal education system
  • lack of systematic data collection
  • lack of infrastructure for support of the inclusion of disabled children
  • dysfunctional juvenile justice system, need of relevant reforms
  • lack of measures and resources for prevention of violence against children
  • need for institution capacity building of the competent stakeholders

KMOP can actively contribute in tackling the above-mentioned critical issues, as it has been promoting children’s well-being and supporting children’s rights for many years, having presented relevant activities, including: innovative actions of how to face children from vulnerable backgrounds dropping out of school; capacity building of multidisciplinary teams on children’s rights and on child-friendly justice; as well as counter-bullying activities. It should be mentioned that KMOP has developed a concrete counter-bullying initiative, “Live without Bullying”, which aims at tackling school and cyber bullying, following a peer-to-peer methodology and facilitated by an ICT platform, offering training and counselling services to children, parents and teachers. This is a comprehensive, innovative intervention, trying to provide a sustainable solution for school bullying phenomena and their painful effects for children.

 

[1]                      https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/sites/near/files/pdf/key_documents/2014/20141008-the-former-yugoslav-republic-of-macedonia-progress-report_en.pdf


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KMOP Athens (HQ)

75, Skoufa str.
Athens 10680
Greece
Tel.: +30 210 3637547
Fax: +30 210 3639758

KMOP Skopje

St. 1737 № 24/9, 1st floor
Skopje 1000
North Macedonia
Tel.: +389 2 3144 199

KMOP Piraeus

1, Tzavella & Matrozou str.
Pireaus 18533
Greece
Tel.: +30 211 7201055
Fax: +30 211 7407525

KMOP Thessaloniki

3, Afroditis & Odysseos str.
Thessaloniki 54629
Greece
Tel.: +30 2310 534322

KMOP Pristina

Gustav Mayer 7/1
Prishtina 10000
Kosovo
Tel.: +381 (0)38 712 683

KMOP Chișinău

75 M. Kogalniceanu St.
Chisinau MD 2009
Republic of Moldova
Tel.: +373 67 224 222

KMOP Brussels

Rue de la Science, 14B
Brussels (Business Centre)
Belgium

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