hrvatski

Participacija djece u Dječjim vijećima u Hrvatskoj. Izvješće o rezultatima istraživanja provedenog u okviru pripreme Alternativnog izvještaja djece o stanju dječjih prava Hrvatskoj.

Within the initiative “Child Friendly Cities and Communities” in Croatia, children participation and involvement in decisions concerning themselves is stimulated. At the moment there are 34 cities / municipalities in Croatia who have obtained the child-friendly status. In some of those cities/communities, Children Councils have been organized as well. Children Councils represent organized children activities implemented during their free time in such a way that children present their own suggestions and requests to the adults, putting into motion some concrete activities with the aim to improve the implementation of children’s rights in the local community. At the moment 23 councils are active in Croatia and this activity has been included in the National Plan of Activities for the Rights and Interests of Children in the 2006-2012. The Union of Societies “Our Children” Croatia has been supporting Children Councils on professional and organizational level since establishment of the first Council in 1999, with general goal of encouraging active participation of children in Croatian society. The main purpose of research “Participation of Children in Children Councils in Croatia” was to acquire an insight in characteristics of the children participation in implementation of their rights on a local level. The secondary purpose of this research was to prepare the children-councillors for the creation of an Alternative Children Report on the State of Children’s Rights in Croatia which will be delivered by the Union of Societies “Our Children” to the UN Board for Children’s Rights in Geneva. The creation of this Report is a separate project implemented by the Union of Societies “Our Children” in cooperation with UNICEF Office for Croatia. The implemented research was participative which can be seen through the methods of collecting, analysing and presenting the results, whereby accent was on enabling as much participation of children as possible. When planning the research, the processing and the interpretation of the results, the child’s experience and understanding of their own participation was pointed out. 95 children-councillors from 15 Children Councils participated through discussions in the focus groups. Analysis of the answers given by children showed several key areas: the right to express their opinion and to participate in decision making process ; the importance of children participation in decision making ; the equality of children and adults in suggesting and making decisions ; taking their opinions into consideration by the adults ; competences of children for the role of a child-councillor ; feeling that adults in communities respect their suggestions ; problems concerning the participation of children ; and children recommendations for enabling their larger participation. On the basis of these results and children’s opinion expressed in the focus groups, two conclusions were reached: a) Participation in the life of the local communities is very important for children. Children feel competent in expressing their opinions but less competent when it comes to responsibility and participation in decision making process. In this sense it is necessary to additionally educate children, adults and the institutions for this kind of participation. b) Children Councils in Croatia are developing in different ways and this variety should be used for a further development and improvement of children participation in local communities in the sense of improving contact between the children-councillors and the children they represent as well as expand the network of Children councils on the domestic and international level.

djeca; dječja vijeća; participacija

nije evidentirano