Parliament Holds a Public Hearing For Children's Rights Situation in Albania

24 November 2006

The Parliamentary Sub-Commission for Juveniles and Equal Opportunities in cooperation with the Children's Human Rights Centre of Albania � CRCA, organised on November 21.2006, an open public hearing on children's rights situation in the country. CRCA was supported for this activity by Olof Palme International Center and SIDA Sweden.

"I would like to thank the Parliamentary sub-Commission for Minors and especially its Chairwoman Majlinda Bregu, per the continuos interest and dedication that has shown for children's rights in Albania - said for E-news Altin Hazizaj, Director of CRCA - We are establishing a new tradition for the Albanian Parliament, which through these open public hearings gets the possibility to know better the problems that children face and to consult publicly with NGO's and civil society in Albania. For us at CRCA this is a sign of maturity of democracy in the country."

The Public Hearing was organised on the occasion of the 17-Anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and in the framework of public consultations that the sub-commission holds regularly with NGO's and civil society in Albania. This is not the first time that the Sub-commission holds a Public Hearing on children, but yesterday's session was the first one to take into consideration all child-rights issues. The Public Hearing was followed by more than 30 representatives of NGO's, civil society and media in Tirana.

Majlinda Bregu, the Chairwoman of the Sub-Commission for Juveniles under the presence of two other MP's opened the Hearing Session by thanking all the representatives for continuously taking to the commission. Then she explained major initiatives that the Sub-commission and the Albanian Government have taken during the recent months to improve the legislation that can guarantee the respect for children's rights in the country.

"We have seen during the recent years an improvement of the respect of children's rights by the Government, family and society at large - said to the Commission Altin Hazizaj, Director of CRCA and one of the organisers of the Public Hearing - but at the same time we still face violations of children's rights. We believe that only through the approval of new legislation we can build the bases for the establishment of a system of child protection and care in Albania."

Speakers to the public hearing included Brikena Zogaj of Save the Children,who spoke about the positive and negative aspects on child right to education, meanwhile Suela Kusi of Albanian Children's Alliance raised her concerns related to foster care and budgeting for children. Snezhi Bedalli of ILO/IPEC Office in Albania provided the Commission with some major proposals for elimination of child labour and exploitation, while said that the Albanian Government shall take responsibility of successful models and services for children established by NGO's. Etilda Saliu of the Albanian Helsinki Committee presented her concerns related to juveniles in conflict with the law in Albania, while asked the Commission to press for change of legislation and policies for this group.

At the end was agreed in principal that the Sub-Commission for Juveniles and Equal Opportunities will hold a similar event every year on children's rights situation, while Ms. Bregu guaranteed that she and the sub-commission that she chairs will continue to support all NGO / civil society initiatives for the improvement of legislation for children in Albania.