General Comments on children in street situation

Children in street situation represent the most unprotected children in Albania. The number of hours a child works a day varies from two to eighteen hours putting in high risk their physical and emotional wellbeing and exposing them to risk of violence, abuse, exploitation and trafficking by third parties or directly by their parents. A national study on children in street situation conducted by Save the Children and UNICEF (2014), states that the majority of children in street situation are from Roma and Egyptian communities given the extreme living conditions, violent or abusive home situations, neglect, discrimination, exploitation, lack of a parent or both parents, lack of birth registration, low education level, lack of access to schooling and dropping out, gender imbalance, physical/mental health issues, lack of legal work alternatives or other opportunities. While many Roma children live by begging, selling or recycling in the streets of Albania, a rising phenomenon of movement within and outside Albania is increasing, during seasonal holidays they migrate alone or accompanied by adults and relatives to neighbouring countries: Kosovo, Montenegro and Greece where they engage in street work or begging.

To contribute to the improvement of this situation for children in street situation, Save the Children submitted its comments based on the long national experience in establishing a child protection system and providing services to the most deprived children. This input is driven by the strong belief on the State responsibilities to take all the necessary provisions to guaranty special protection to all children without any discrimination on race, religious, sex or social origin.

We believe that a General Comment on children in street situation, together with the obligations deriving from ratification of UNCRC will guide the work of the State to fulfil its duties in development, improvement and implementation of legal, institutional, socio-economic conditions, guaranteeing the full enjoyment of children’s rights, ensuring that the principles of UNCRC are reflected in national legislation.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child has started a process of developing a General Comment on children in street situations. Save the Children Albania Country office has submitted to the Committee its contribution bringing the experience and learning from the years of work with children in street situation and building functional child protection mechanisms. We hope that this General Comment will guide the work of the Government and civil society organizations toward completing legal and policy framework to prevent and respond to children’s vulnerabilities and ensuring that all children enjoy their rights as stipulated in the UNCRC.