Tupancheski: Every child deserves to be adequately protected in the system
Skopje, 15 September 2022 (MIA) – Justice Minister Nikola Tupancheski addressed on Thursday the launch of the National Strategy for Justice for Children (2022-2026) and the related Action Plan (2022-2023), a document drafted by the State Council for the Prevention of Child Delinquency, with the support of UNICEF and the EU.
“Every child deserves to be adequately protected in the system. Every child deserves their needs to be a priority for institutions. Every child deserves to be spared from any behavior that leads to any form of discrimination, marginalization, victimization or secondary victimization,” Minister Tupancheski pointed out. He stressed that the strategy addresses children at risk, children in conflict with the law, and children witnesses and victims. It is adopted ahead of the new law on justice for children and is an extremely important document, the only one of its kind in the country, which results from the State Council’s specific competences. According to him, success in terms of protecting children and ensuring justice for children, requires a multi-sectoral approach, networking of all relevant stakeholders in the justice system for children at the level of institutions, as well as at a personal level of the professionals involved in the justice system for children. “It is necessary to stress the importance of activity of the local self-government in the implementation of a segment of the strategic goals, given the fact that every local community has its own specifics in relation to the risk factors for child delinquency, and hence specifics in defining preventive programs and an approach adapted to the needs, i.e. the situation of the children in a municipality,” Tupancheski said. He added that successful implementation of the strategy will make it possible to strengthen the capacities of institutions, raise public awareness, implement relevant international standards and improve the data collection system. President of the State Council for the Prevention of Child Delinquency, Gordana Lazhetikj, said the national strategy is a document that will define roadmaps in the next five years, in terms of what it means to take steps to identify risk factors when it comes to child delinquency, and identify the appropriate relevant institutions that will need to take measures and activities to overcome the current situations. According to Judge Lazar Nanev, who also addressed the launch, ensuring conditions of well-being, non-discrimination and children's participation in making all decisions that are important to them, are the basic key pillars of the National Strategy for Children in the Republic of North Macedonia, in the development of which he has also participated.
