Child Protection

There is still a lack of reliable data on child protection issues in the country. Below is a snapshot of major issues based on available national data:

• It is estimated that there are about 28,000 children at-risk provided with different social protection services in the country. This includes children in contact with the law, children victims of any forms of violence, neglect and abuse, children deprived of parental care and children from poor households who are beneficiaries of social welfare schemes (Source: National Institute for Social Activities, 2008).
• There are some 1,000 “children on the street”, 95 per cent of which are Roma. According to available data, almost all children on the street do have a family but spend their daytime on the streets engaged in different activities (begging, cleaning windshields etc.). The majority of them live in improvised household “dwellings” with limited access to water and electricity; do not go to school; do not have health insurance and no access to regular medical services. Lack of birth registration has also been identified as a major problem among children on the street.  (Source: UNICEF Assessment of the situation of children on the street, 2005).
• Out of the total estimated 28,000 children at-risk, some 1,200 children temporarily or permanently deprived of primary care givers are cared for by the State through different services, i.e. foster care, guardianship, institutional care (about 30 per cent, or some 400 children, are still cared for in institutions). The country has still comparatively high public institutional care rate – 176 children per 100,000 population aged 0-17, compared, for instance, to countries like Albania with a rate of 62 children per 100,000 population aged 0-17 (Source: UNICEF TransMONEE, 2007). The country has also the lowest foster parents/guardians care rate in the region – 205 children per 100,000 population aged 0-17. For most of the countries in the region this rate varies from 428 to 2,038 children per 100,000 population aged 0-17 (Source: MONEE Analytical Report on Children in Public Care, State Statistical Office, 2006).
• The country has the second highest rate of children in conflict with the law in the region with a 2005 recorded crime rate of 1,856 per 100,000 children 14-17 years old, emphasis on punishment and custodial sentencing rather than prevention and rehabilitation (Source: Lost in the Justice System, UNICEF regional report, 2007).
• The Multi Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS, 2005/2006) also provides some updated statistics in relevant child protection areas. The survey found that as many as 94 per cent of children had been registered at birth. However, in the poorest quintile, birth registration is 88.5 per cent. Also, ethnic Macedonian children are registered at slightly higher rates than children from other ethnic groups (birth registration rates are the lowest among Roma, at 92 per cent). Early marriage is most common among Roma, where 11 per cent of girls marry before age 15 and 49 per cent before age 18, compared to the national average of 1 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.

Despite progress made, social protection services for children are still to a great extent inadequate both at the normative level and at the service delivery level. Overall, social services, delivered through the Centres for Social Work (CSW), are not effective. A significant shortage of human resources in the social sector is largely recognized as a key impediment for ensuring effective delivery of social services. Furthermore, systems to monitor quality of social services delivered to children and families are largely inadequate. Administration of social welfare benefits, including child allowances, is found to be largely ineffective with the result that the most vulnerable groups, first and foremost children, risk to be left out of the existing social safety nets. Overall expenditure on social protection has gradually increased between 1994 and 2007. However, expenditures on children, which mostly relate to funding for child care and recreation centres, have significantly decreased over the same period.  

ACTION

UNICEF Child Protection programme aims at supporting the Government at central and municipal level in strengthening systems for the provisions of quality preventive and protective services for children, focusing on the reform of child care services and the creation of a child-friendly juvenile justice system.  More specifically, through this programme, UNICEF:

• Seeks to ensure that government policies and programmes related to child protection are increasingly evidence-based by supporting knowledge generation on specific thematic areas and by creating capacities for data collection within the system;
• Supports the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (MoLSP) and related institutions in the implementation of capacity building programmes targeting professionals from the 27 Centers for Social Work to strengthen provision of protective services for children deprived of primary care givers and children victims of all forms of violence (including trafficking); 
• Provides technical support for revising and upgrading the normative framework related to child care, in  line with the national De-institutionalization strategy;Supports the reform of the national justice system, including the implementation of the Juvenile Justice Law (2007), to ensure that mechanisms are in place to provide adequate protection for children and adolescents as victims, witnesses or offenders.
  UNICEF Child Protection programme is presently structured around two components: 1) Juvenile Justice; and 2) Child Care sector reform.

PROGRESS

• A National Strategy for the De-institutionalisation of Child Care Services and operational plan were developed by the MoLSP with UNICEF support in 2007 and subsequently endorsed by the Government in early 2008.
• A network of child care services for children deprived of parental care has been strengthened with UNICEF support.  This includes an increased number of foster families, improved systems for regular monitoring of foster families and ground work for establishing group homes for children deprived of primary care givers was completed in 2007, and the first group home will become operational in 2008. An additional eight day-care centres for children with mild and moderate disabilities were set up bringing the national network of day-care centres to 18. While most centres have been established through direct support from UNICEF, they are now all funded by the MoLSP.
• UNICEF is supporting the National Institute of Social Activities (ISA) in establishing a resource center for systematic data collection of children at social risk and children with special needs.  This will enable the Government to use reliable data for ensuring more targeted interventions.
• UNICEF provided technical and financial support to the MoLSP to develop a National Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Children and to develop guidelines for protection and rehabilitation of child victims of trafficking, as part of the National Referral Mechanism on human trafficking.
• A new Juvenile Justice Law was adopted by the Parliament in 2007 as part of the package of EU priority accession laws.  UNICEF has played a critical role in the development of the law through support to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). In order to ensure timely, effective and efficient implementation, the MoLSP and MoJ with UNICEF support are building the capacity of professionals from the judiciary, from the Centres for Social Work, and law enforcement officials. In addition, UNICEF advocates that some EU resources be allocated to support juvenile justice sector as part of the EU accession agenda.
• UNICEF has supported a number of studies and researches contributing to the understanding of various social and child protection issues. This includes: i) an Evaluation of the Foster Family services (2007/2008); ii) an Assessment of the national Child Protection System (2006/2007); iii) a Research on Child trafficking (2006/2007); iv) an Evaluation of Day Care Centres for Children with Special Needs (2006/2007); v) an Assessment of the responsiveness of the child protection system to violence against children (2005/2006); vi) a Study on children in the streets (2005/2006).