Founded 1992 Website childrenembassy.org.mk | Location Skopje, Macedonia | |
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Founder Gordana Pirovska-Zmijanac, Dragi Zmijanac | ||
First Children's Embassy in the World - Megjashi (abbreviated as FCEWM), or simply Megjashi, is a children's rights organisation in Macedonia. Founded in 1992, it strives for respecting child's personality, advocates child's interests and connects children from different backgrounds. The organisation claims to be the first children's embassy in the world. Megjashi is member of numerous domestic and international organisation, including the Child Rights Information Network, Defence for Children International and Child Helpline International.
Megjashi provides information on children’s rights, advocates on the provision of free legal counselling for children, and contains information on the regulations concerning children victims and witnesses of crime participating in legal procedures.
History
Megjashi was founded on 29 April 1992 in Skopje. It derives its name from the village of Međaši, located on the Bosnia and Herzegovina's border with Serbia, which was declared "the first children's country in the world" in 1991.
The organisation was active in providing humanitarian aid to around 60,000 child refugees from the Bosnian War and helping directing them to foreign countries. It also extended support to children and housed dislocated persons from the village of Aračinovo during the 2001 insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia.
Megjashi also lobbied for the ratification of numerous international conventions in Macedonia, including the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction in 1995 as well as Convention No. 182 and Recommendation No. 190 for emergency elimination of the worst forms of children labour in 2002.