EUROCHILD CONFERENCE “Building a better Europe with children: All aboard!”, OPATIJA 2018

More than three hundred leading experts in the field of children’s rights, members of associations, policy makers and children and youth from 39 European countries visited Opatija from 29th to 31st of October and participated in the conference “Building a better Europe with children: All aboard!”.

Organized by the Eurochild network organization. The conference was hosted by the Society “Our Children” Opatija and the City of Opatija-Child Friendly City. The theme of the conference was the active participation of children in public policy-making at local, national and European level.

The motto of the conference was designed by children, and states: “We are counting on you, are you counting on us?”

On the last day of the conference, interesting Living Library workshops were held, where the workshop leaders shared their experiences and advice with the participants, and at the closing of the conference, the recommendations of children and youth addressed to policy makers were presented, which read:

• Every government in Europe should introduce education on children’s right to participate as a compulsory part of every school’s curriculum;
• Every government in Europe should implement an inclusive participation strategy, for ALL children, that obliges local, regional and national policy policy craters to take into account children’s attitudes;
• Every government in Europe should be obliged to provide evidence of children’s influence in drawing up programs and participating in decision-making and implementation.

14th meetings of the Children’s Councils of Croatia

Meetings of the Children’s Councils of Croatia for the third time in Opatija.

The 14th meetings of the Children’s Councils of Croatia are organized by the Union of Societies “Our Children” of Croatia and the Ministry of Demography, Family, Social Policy and Youth under the auspices of the County Primorsko-goranska. The host of the meeting was SOC Opatija and the City of Opatija.

Participants from the Children’s Councils of Čakovec, Dubrovnik, Jastrebarsko, Karlovac, Koprivnica, Nova Gradiška, Ogulin, Opatija, Pregrada, Prelog, Pula, Rovinj, Šibenik, Tuhelj, Varaždin and Velika Gorica were greeted by Mayor Ivo Dujmić, Children’s Mayor Petra Deranja, President of the Union of Societies “Our Children” of Croatia dr. sc. Aida Salihagić Kadić, Secretary of SOC Opatija and Vice-President of SOC Croatia Sanja Škorić, Assistant Minister of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy Maja Vučinić Knežević and Head of the Administrative Department for Social Policy and Youth of County Primorsko-goranska Dragica Marač.

Charts for “Best actions of 2018” were also announced, and the awards were won by the Children’s Councils from Pregrada and Pula. It is a competition for the best projects designed by children, which improve the lives of children in their communities. 15 projects from all over Croatia were submitted, and a commission composed of members of the 11th convocation of the Children’s City Council of Opatija decided that the best projects were “Happy Week” of the Children’s City Council of Pregrada and “Educational play in the form of a theater forum” of the Children’s Council of Pula.

This year’s Meeting of Children’s Councils is part of the large European conference “Building a better Europe with children: All aboard!” decision-making at local, national and European level entitled “Let’s participate – involving Children’s Councils in decision-making processes at EU levels”. The children will also bring their Declaration, which they will present to the participants of the Eurochild international conference.

Representatives of the 14th Meeting of Children’s Councils of Croatia, which took place in Opatija in parallel with the Eurochild conference – Nikola Dujmović from CC Rovinj, Lucija Brajković from CCC Opatija and Barbara Golub from CC Jastrebarsko also presented their conclusions and messages to adults. They said that adults should accept children as equal partners in the decision-making process at local, national and European level, sensitize the media to recognize the importance of children’s rights and that children should listen to adults, and adults should hear and listen to children because only through cooperation and joint effort we can ensure that the voices of children are heard.

The idea of organizing the Meeting of Children’s Councils started from Opatija in 2004 at the suggestion of the small councilor Ema Starčić from II. convocation of the Children’s City Council of the City of Opatija. Children’s City councilors supported Ema’s proposal and allocated funds from their Small Budget to the organization of the Meeting. Four councils took part in that first meeting, and today the number of participants has grown to about twenty. After that, Opatija was the host in 2008, and this year it was awarded the honor for the third time.

Cologne Declaration

Opatija is the only Croatian city that has signed the Cologne Declaration of Child Friendly Cities. The Child Friendly Cities campaign in our country has been implemented since 1999 and we are one of the first six cities in Croatia to take the title Child Friendly City in 2005, which places us among the pioneers at the world level.

At the World Summit of Child Friendly Cities held in UNICEF in Cologne from 15th to 18th of October, the Child Friendly Cities Inspire Awards 2019 were awarded, where Opatija was placed among the five finalists in the category of Significant Child Participation and was included in the list of 20 best world child-friendly cities that encourage innovative and inspiring solutions and projects to improve children’s rights locally. Out of 110 nominated cities in 6 categories, Opatija reached the finals and deserved special thanks from UNICEF for inspiring and encouraging cities around the world to implement examples of good practice with the aim of improving the lives of children.