BLOG: Zgjim's reflection on reaching the heights for the Rights of the Child
The following blog is a reflection from Zgjim. He wrote it while he was in Brussels, participating in the #EurochildConf.
I am going to tell you about my experience advocacting for children’s rights, how life can change within a short period of time and how you can contribute to changing other children’s lives.
As a member of “Kids for Peace” Project of World Vision in Kosovo, I had the chance to participate in the “Children as Actor for Transforming Society (CATS) Conference in Switzerland last year. After this, I was selected to participate in another Conference. I was one of ten young representatives at the Council of Europe’s Conference “Reaching the heights for the Rights of the Child” aimed at launching the new strategy for the rights of the child (2016-2021).
This was a very important event for the rights of the child at the European level. This Strategy was to be adopted by the Comittee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and it will be implemented within the next five years by 47 countries, members of the Council of Europe. This strategy has some priority areas, such as:
- Equal opportunities for all Children
- Participation of all Children
- A violence free life
- Child Friendly Justice
- Children’s Rights in Digital Environment
The Conference took place in the beautiful city of Sofia (Bulgaria) on the 5th and 6th of April 2016. There were more than 300 participants, 10 of them being young people. We, the young people, had the opportunity to meet high level representatives such as Ministers of the CoE and discuss important issues that children in Europe are facing.
During this Conference, I attended three sessions:
- Upholding the Rights of Children on the move - learning from the refugee crisis
- Follow-up to the Lanzarotte Commitee’s first implementation report on the protection of children against sexual abuse in the circle of trust
- The UN study on violence against children, progress and challenges in Europe
Every session was unique and informative, I learned a lot and after every session we, the young people, had to report back to the whole group.
I wanted to attend the session on the refugee crisis because that is something I have been through as a baby. Since my country was at war, my family and I had to migrate to Albania for some months, my parents told me the difficulties they had to deal with during that hard time. Having my rights being violated as a baby, I decided to advocate for the rights of the child and play a role in the field of child rights in Kosovo by becoming a member of World Vision in this country.
After my participation at the session on the refugee crisis in Sofia, I was so inspired and wanted to do something for the refugee children living in my area. That is why I am going to help the refugees on the Serbian-Macedonian border next month, with some peers from other organisations. We will play with them and listen to their stories.
I also participated in the session on Violence against Children. After coming back to Kosovo and sharing the lessons learned with my friends from World Vision, we decided to do something about it. So we came out with an objective. We will advocate for children who face violence. We are going to make a survey and see how many children in our country have faced violence in their everyday life and then advocate towards the local and national institutions and STOP violence against children.
So, I can say that I really learnt a lot from the Council of Europe’s Conference in Sofia and I consider that children and young people's participation in such events is really important because this is how we get inspired to make a change in our communities and take initiatives after learning from real change makers, like policy makers, decision makers and most important, from each other’s good practices as child rights activists.
I began as a refugee baby and now I am here, at the Heart of Europe, advocating for the rights of children at the European level.