WeBER

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WeBER INITIATIVE

 

The citizen says his word on the efficiency of Public Administration at the local level

Observatory for Children’s Rights (Observatory) in the framework of the Public Administration Reform (PAR), is implementing the “WeBER” initiative on “Monitoring the effectiveness of the performance of local government administration through citizens’ opinion”.

This initiative is being implemented in 2 municipalities and respectively in  Municipality of Tirana and  Municipality of Cerrik. The pilot zone of the initiative are the administrative units No. 5, 6, Dajt and Petrela on Municipality of Tirana and Cerrik and Gostimi on Municipalities of Cerrik. The duration of the initiative is 7 months, June – December 2017. The main purpose of the initiative is to assess the public opinion (residents) about the transparency of local government, the services provided, the best forms of public information and the effectiveness of public administration.

This initiative is funded by the European Union and co-financed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands through the Small Grants Instrument of the “WeBER – Enabling Western Balkan Countries for Monitoring the Reform in Public Administration by Civil Society” project implemented by the Institute for Democracy and Mediation in Albania (IDM). The project will be realized through the implementation of some measuring instruments that will serve to measure the perceptions of community opinion and local administration staff as; questionnaires and interviews. Meetings on communities and with public administration staff of local government units during which the initiatives and targets to be achieved will be presented and they are also part of the activities of the implementation process. Promoting public dialogue will be achieved through 2 face-to-face meetings with participation of the community and the local administration where the results of both sides’ opinion and their comparison will be disclosed in terms of the performance of the administration in Municipality of Tirana and Municipality of Cerrik.

At the end of the implementation of the initiative will be presented at a final meeting findings, recommendations and comparison of best experiences. The main activities of the WeBER initiative will be made public at all times of its implementation on the Observatory’s web site: www.observator.org.al  on facebook: Observatory for Children’s Rights and on other media.

For anyone interested in knowing more about the initiative implemented by the Observatory, may contact the following email address: info@observator.org.al  and contact person: z.kondi@observator.org.al

#EU_WeBER

 

This project is funded by the European Union and co-financed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands through the Small Grants Instrument of the “WeBER – Enabling Western Balkan Countries for Monitoring the Reform in Public Administration by Civil Society” project implemented in Albania by the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM).

Enrollment of children in 1st grade

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The enrollment of pupils in the first grade is done pursuant to article 13 of Chapter IV “Primary Education” of the Normative Provisions on the pre-university educational system, 2013.

Procedures for the enrollment of pupils in the first grade
1. The enrollment of students in the first grade of primary education for the new academic year is done during the last two weeks of June.
a. During the first six days, only the pupils who live in the school area are eligible to enroll in the first grade of a public school. When the distance of the child’s residence from two public schools is debatable, the parent chooses one of the two schools.
b. Students belonging to other school areas are entitled to enroll in the next four days. The special registrations are admissible until the first days before the start of the school year in September.
2. Pursuant to the implementation of the joint Order no. 2, dated 05.01.2015 “On the approval of the regulation for the implementation of the cooperation Agreement, dated 02.08.2013 “On the identification and school enrollment of all children of compulsory school age”, every educational institution must apply the list of children’s names sent by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
3. The documents needed to enroll the child in the first grade are:
a. The birth certificate of the child.
b. Confirmation of vaccination from the health center.
c. Ophthalmologist’s report.
d. Child’s address.
e. Confirmation of kindergarten attendance by groups, signed by the director of the kindergarten (if any).
4. In special cases, when a parent wants to enroll a child in the first grade, but:
a. does not have a birth certificate, the school principal allows the child to attend school according to the age claimed by the parent and, according to the circumstances, gives the parent a deadline for the submission of the certificate;
b. does not have the confirmation of vaccination, the school principal asks the parent to address the matter to the relevant health center and, enrolls the child after receiving the confirmation.

We bring to your attention:
– Free transportation for students attending kindergarten or primary education who live at a distance of over 2 km away from the school (Item 1.b, Decision “On the use of public funds to transport the educational staff and students who work and study outside the residence”).
– Free textbooks for children: victims of trafficking, in detention/sentenced, admitted to the Oncology Service, children of police officers fallen on duty, Roma and Egyptian Children and beneficiaries in public residential social care institutions. (Item 6.9 of the Decision no. 707, dated 26. 08.2015 “On the publication, printing, distribution and sale of textbooks for pre-university education system,” as amended”)

 

Waiting for 1st of June 2017….#UneMbrojfemijet#InvestOnChildren

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Waiting for 1st of June 2017….#UneMbrojfemijet#InvestOnChildren

Award “Child Protection Workers of the Year”

“Child Protection Organization of the Year”

 

This award has the aim of evaluation of the extraordinary contribution for children of individuals and organizations, for protecting them from any form of violence – by promoting positive and inspirational examples.

The award will be given on 1st of June, as an initial of yearly tradition.

The criteria’s for the Award “Child protection workers of the year”:

  1. To be an employee of the Child Protection Unit and have more than 5 years of working experience.
  2. Have made an extraordinary contribution to protecting children from violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation by bringing changes in the lives of children and families.
  3. To have managed a significant number of cases, applying quality case management procedures.
  4. To be active and cooperate with actors from various public, private, donor, NGO and public awareness-raising community in the field of child protection issues.

The criteria’s for the Award “Child Protection Organization of the Year” (NGO)

  1. To be an NGO registered in the Republic of Albania for more than 5 years.
  2. To have focus on child labor rights and be known in child protection work for abuse, exploitation, violence, or neglect.
  3. To have provided community support and contributing to capacity building of public institutions and / or childcare providers.

 

The prize will be “Participation in an international training” provided by Childhub.org

 

Candidates can be nominated at elona.halilosmani@femijet.gov.al until May 25, 2017. The proposal should contain a short argument (max 150 words) on the proposed candidacy. The candidates will be evaluated and selected by the MOSWY Evaluation Commission.

 

Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth

Olta Xhacka

UNICEF Albania

Observatori për të Drejtat e Fëmijëve / Observatory for Children’s Rights

Terre des hommes Albania

Launching event for presenting the report on underage marriages

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Tirana, 10 March 2017

Observatory in partnership with Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI), realized the meeting for presenting the Report on the legal, judicial practice and social aspects of underage marriages in Korca and Pogradec for the period 2011 – 2016.

Observatory with the support of CFLI has implemented the initiative “Prevention of early marriages in strengthening the legal mechanisms and social perceptions, as a tool to empower women and girls (PREVENTION)”. The project is implemented by the Observatory through “monitoring decisions of District Courts of Korca and Pogradec for the period 2011 – 2016″ followed with the social analyze of these cases.

Aiming the improvement of the court decisions with the respect of highest interest of the child, the open meeting has collected the representatives of international and national institutions, various ministries and the central and local subordinate institutions together with NGOs operating in the field of children’s rights.

Some of the legal and judicial practice recommendations of the report are:

  • For the Court, keeping the interest of the minor in mind should be the main consideration and this special care needs to be reflected in the content of the decision as clearly as possible through the specific analysis according to the case.
  • Only the minor seeking to enter into underage marriage is the one that is actively legitimated to make the request.
  • A very important principle that should be kept in control by the Court is the autonomy of the will of the minor requesting permit to enter into underage marriage. In order to evaluate this will, the minor should be personally present throughout the entire process. The Court should guarantee the right of the minor to be heard and informed. The Court should keep in mind that the younger the age of the person the easier it is to manipulate the minor to enter into marriage without free consent.
  • Taking the opinion of the psychologist on the psychological evaluation, free consent and social situation is a legal obligation and a great help for the Court, so that it can rule a fair decision and to judge on the importance of the causes and their merits, as well as the physical and psychological maturity of the person through the verification of the psychologist.
  • The Court should keep in mind that the juvenile girls in difficult economic situation are more exposed to the risk of fictitious marriages or the promises of marriage that end up to exploitation for prostitution, trafficking or any other kind of exploitation.
  • As pertaining to the legislation, there is still room for improvements regarding the active legitimating of the minor girl and the determination of a minimum age below which underage marriage cannot be allowed for any reason. Furthermore, many of the suggestions include in this document may be also accompanied by legal improvements. The approach and harmonization with the international standards quoted in this report is still important.

The problems and issues that accompany underage marriages require an in-depth analysis of this situation throughout the entire country.

An adequate and productive intervention in this direction is related to the unification of the interventions and the efforts to improve the situation of women married under age by bringing together the policymakers, the state bodies involved in the enforcement of the law related to marriage, civil society organizations, donors, schools and the communities where these women live.

Let us give a voice to these girls and let them have a healthy and dignified childhood!

Debate and Discussions for the Albanian reality of Early Marriages: The need for intervention. . .”

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Debate and discussions for “The Albanian reality of Early Marriages: The need for intervention. . .”

Observatory for Children’s Rights in partnership with the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives organized the Conference focused on enhancing of different stakeholders engagement and outline of intervention strategies to prevent and eradicate the phenomenon of child early marriage in Albania. Drawbacks and perpetual problems faced by girls–women and their newly established families throughout their lives were acknowledged and addressed in the statements/speeches of high governmental authorities, as well as by each panelist and participant of this conference.

Research tackling issues related to early and child marriages as societal problems of women and youth at the local levels, along with increasing of awareness to prevent early child marriage at the local and national level can be considered innovative and progressive in countries like Albania, where this phenomenon has spread its roots deep into history and unfortunately revived lately by the very dynamic social factors of a prolonged transition. Regional and global research place special focus on indicating the long-lasting consequences of the child early marriage on physical and emotional wellbeing and infringements of the rights to education and development (personal, professional and economic). Similar findings were evidenced through our detailed snapshot of the Albanian reality urging for immediate interventions to address the push and pulling factors of child early marriage in Albanian context.

Under the CRC[1] and CEDAW[2] Albania is required to consider the issue of early marriages and report about it. The coordination and intensification of joint efforts on early marriage in the Albanian context is a crucial imperative.

The constructive debates has bring the expression of the willingness of Ministries for future cooperation to reduce underage marriages through:

  • Strengthening the role of CPUs and CRU’s which are suitably placed at local and regional level;
  • Support of young mothers through specific social intervention programs;
  • Individual work with girls -mothers;
  • Addressing the gaps through adoption of necessary changes in the legal framework;
  • Conducting of a national study including areas in northern Albania;
  • Provision of tailored psycho-social services to address young people needs.

The multifaceted issue of early marriage both in terms of reducing its occurrence and in terms of adressing its consequences represents a give-and-take process among different stakeholders groups including the Government of Albania and its host of institutions, the local government as implementer and supporter of policies, donor community interested in the issues related to early marriage, media outlets, community at the local level, and the civil society operating at the local level.

We are convinced and inspired that an effective cooperation among the above-mentioned stakeholders will provide the best policy and social environment where these girls are empowered to have a stronger voice and take the lead of their lives – “to enjoy being girls before being brides!”

            Team Work

Observatory for Children’s Rights

[1] Child Rights Convention

[2] Convention for Elemination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women

Workshop, consultation and debate for Out of School Children

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Tirana, 27 January 2016

Workshop, consultation and debate

Out of School Children- Phase II

Observatory for Children’s Rights, Ministry of Education and Sports in partnership with UNICEF Albania, have realized the Workshop, consultation and debate in the framework of the initiative “Every child in school”.

“Out of school children”, an initiative of MoES, in partnership with UNICEF is implemented by the Observatory for Children’s Rights. This initiative started in 2013 and was followed by the Observatory for Children’s Rights from 2014 onward, with the aim of identifying and registering in school all children of compulsory education age as well as preventing school leave by children who are at risk of dropping out. This initiative aims to establish adequate mechanisms that facilitate the attendance of school from every child of compulsory school age till 9 grade.

This Workshop has collected together representatives of Regional Education Directories, Education Officces, MoES specialists, as well as other experts tasked with collecting data for the registration and keeping the children in school enrollment, in Albania.

workshop-cdo_femije_ne_shkolle

The situation in the flooded areas in Vlora, Fier, Berat and Korca and the need for intervention

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Recommendations and debates on National Action Plan for Children 2012-2015

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The beginning of school year 2015-2016

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Korçë Observatory – November 16, 2011

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COMMENTS ABOUT THE DRAFT: “PLAN OF ACTION 2010 – 2015 ON THE NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR CHILDREN“

The Observatory office of Children’s Rights – Korce has organized roundtable discussions with local actors to inform them about the Draft – “Plan of Action 2011 – 2015 on the National Strategy for Children” formulated by MOLSAEO ( Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities). Moreover the Observatory has taken into account the actor’s opinion regarding this draft. Some of the Local Institutions that participated in the discussion about the plan of Action were:  Representative from the Region, from the Municipality and from the Education sector and NGO’s (Non Governmental Organization). The institutions expressed their opinion about some possible improvements in the Draft–Plan of Action:

  • To establish Children’s Protection Unit.
  • There are no Rehabilitation Institutions for boys to operate in all the points mentioned in the Draft.
  • Student’s Governments need to be trained (especially in the Communes ).
  • The Job Inspectorate must have the competences to intervene also in informal entities in order to prevent Child Labor.
  • There are no separate rooms for children in detention.
  • The Tribunal should have small halls for judgement of minors.
  • Local Institutions must be efficient with the respective budgets, including the budget for children.
  • There must be psychologists at kindergardens and social workers at schools.