KOMF: The status of children in Kosovo is serious

On the day of marking the 30th anniversary of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Coalition of NGOs for Children's Protection KOMF urged institutions to take all preparations for implementing the Law on Child Protection in order to ensure child protection.

In June of this year, Kosovo has first adopted the Child Protection Law, which aims to protect the child from all forms of violence, abuse, exploitation, neglect or any other form that endangers life, security, health, education, education and child development.

This law will take effect a year after publishing in the Official Journal of the Republic of Kosovo.

The coMF risks that the situation of children in Kosovo is serious. Recent data speaks of a scale of child poverty of 20.7%.

“10.7% of children in Kosovo are involved in the work, while 6.8% of them work in dangerous conditions. 61.4 % of the children in Kosovo have claimed to have experienced physical or psychological violence during the last month of the interview, when research was done. Only 10% of disabled children have access to quality health, social and education services”, the communique says.

Reports from government and nongovernmental institutions speak of an increase in children's involvement in behavior that conflicts with the law, including violence, which in some cases has been fatal to children themselves.

KOMF remains committed to supporting child social protection reform, which guarantees child protection, with vulnerable focus: parenting children, child abuse victims, children involved in heavy work, disabled children, etc.

KOMF says it will continue to support development in early childhood and contribute to increased quality and integration of social welfare, health and education services.