The law obliges the media to respect the rights of children in their programs and to protect them from content that can harm their moral, intellectual and emotional development. The same obligations arise from the journalistic codes. Are the media in Kosovo adhering to these provisions or the rights of children are violated almost every day?
Every year since 2012, we celebrate the International Day of the Girl on Oct. 11, to recognize how hard being a girl is even to this day.
The European Union (EU) and UNICEF have broadened an important regional partnership that aims to protect children from violence and better include children with disabilities into society. Since 2011, UNICEF and the EU have been working together with countries currently in the process of joining the EU, such as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Turkey. This partnership is now expanding to include Kosovo, Montenegro, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. As of this year, the European Disability Forum (EDF) has joined the partnership.
Kosovo journalists are concerned with a legal initiative undertaken by the Office of the Prime Minister, which aims to control online and print media reporting about children. This initiative was undertaken by UNICEF in Kosovo and supported by the Office of the Prime Minister. Imer Mushkolaj from the Press Council said this initiative is against the media because the government cannot regulate the method of reporting on children. “We analyzed the regulation and it has legal problems.
Kosovo today marks European Immunization Week, organized by the Ministry of Health, UNICEF Kosovo and World Health Organization (WHO). The Ministry of Health, through a press release, stated that the European Immunization Week in Kosovo aims, through organized activities, to raise awareness about immunization and improve the health status of children in Kosovo.
Kosovo’s Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Rita Hajzeraj-Beqaj, participated in the regional conference on "Sharing interdisciplinary practices on child protection". Hajzeraj-Beqaj emphasized the importance of the multidisciplinary access in case management in order to coordinate and exchange the best practices in child protection. She said that the Ministry will support every initiative that has to do with improving the situation of children who are considered marginalized.
According to statistics presented by the head of UNICEF office in Pristina, Laila Omar Gad, six out of ten children in Kosovo have experienced violence and while the government has improved legal infrastructure, it needs to invest more in children. Gad made the comments in a conference in Pristina about the findings of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS). “Kosovo has a young population with 34 percent being under the age of 18 and half of the population under the age of 24.
Kosovo Assembly Speaker Kadri Veseli met today with the Regional Director of UNICEF for Central and Eastern Europe, Marie Pierre Poirier. Veseli and Poirier discussed Kosovo's relations with UNICEF and the development of projects for children. Veseli thanked Poirier for UNICEF's continuous support for the children of Kosovo, considering this a valuable contribution to the promotion and protection of children's rights. Poirier said that UNICEF will continue with projects in all areas related to the rights, welfare and education of children in Kosovo.
Kosovo Assembly Speaker Kadri Veseli, attended a conference organized by UNICEF in Kosovo, where it was discussed the state of children's rights in Kosovo. “Children are the most vulnerable category of society, therefore the real face of a society is exactly in the way it treats its children in day care, family, schools and other social facilities,” Veseli said. Veseli said that Kosovo is building a society that will guarantee more rights for children and a better future.