MORE RIGHTEOUS WORLD FOR CHILDREN IS POSSIBLE ONLY IF THERE IS NO WAR, THE AIR IS CLEAN AND THERE ARE HEALTY CHILDREN – DRAGI ZMIJANAC, THE FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF THE FIRST CHILDREN’S EMBASSY IN THE WORLD MEGJASHI

1. MORE RIGHTEOUS WORLD FOR CHILDREN IS POSSIBLE ONLY IF THERE IS
NO WAR, THE AIR IS CLEAN AND THERE ARE HEALTY CHILDREN – DRAGI
ZMIJANAC, THE FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF THE FIRST CHILDREN’S
EMBASSY IN THE WORLD MEGJASHI
More righteous world for children is possible only if there is no war, there is clean air and
there are healthy children, if the adopted children are let know their biological parents, if the
children with health and other specific problems are enabled with a high-quality health care
and education, if the children have equal care from both parents that together will take of
him/her after they are divorced, if all children are included in the education and if there are no
children expelled from their hometown as a result of a war or a conflict, if the children are
not forced to prostitution, pornography, if there are not any raped and tortured children, if
there are no poor children - says the Academician МА Dragi Zmijanac, the founder and
president of the First Children's Embassy in the World "Megjashi" which today celebrates its
25 - year anniversary.
-This year marks the significant jubilee, a 25 years since the establishment of the First
Children Embassy in the World "Megjashi". What prompted you to create the oldest
civic organization in the country to protect the rights of the child and what was its
origin?
When the war started in former Yugoslavia, the embassy, which was to be built in the small
town Megjashi, was dislocated in Sarajevo, at the initiative of my colleague and wife
Gordana, who contacted the creator of the idea Dusko Tomic and he agreed that we should
establish a Consulate and in 1994 we reregistered in the First Children Embassy in the World
"Megjashi". I supported the establishment and formation of the First Children's Embassy
from the very beginning, I was doing it as a volunteer until I realized that this was a huge
worldwide movement that needed a lot to help and to be professionally involved. As a
Children's Embassy "Megjashi" we were involved in key moments for children affected by
war even when we were not even registered. In fact, Gordana, Kole and I and then civic

2. activists and volunteers started taking care of refugee children in our homes as an informal
civic initiative for help, support, with a real solidarity and humanity to help children affected
by war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, on an appeal of “Jutel”, directed by Aleksandar Micic to
the Macedonian citizens to take care of refugee children from Croatia and Bosnia. Gordana,
as a coordinator of the establishment of the Consulate General at that time, went to MTV and
on 12th
April, 1992 supported the appeal of Saraevo and the evacuation of children from
Bosnia and Croatia in Macedonia began. "Palair Macedonia" offered its help and gave a
plane, the first refugees arrived who were welcomed by many public figures, Dragan
Mijalkovski, Esma Redzepova, Kole Angelovski, they all joined to host the refugees and in
fact, our story started then in that way. We started informally, and registered on 29th
April,
1992 and after several years of intensive care for refugees, and in 1993 we started activities
that addressed the needs and interests of the children in Macedonia, which could be
implemented in peacetime conditions.
-In the past 25 years, the First Children's Embassy in the World "Megjashi" in the
Macedonian society means synonymous of the struggle for the rights of the child, which
is due to the sincere commitment to the children's rights in order to build a more
righteous world for them. In that regard, what are the most significant achievements of
the Children's Embassy" Megjashi"?
When we established the Children’s Embassy 25 years ago to help the children affected by
the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we did not know what we pushed ourselves into, what
challenges we were going to face with and how to deal with them. We could not even
imagine what other things were going to happen. Thus came the refugees from Kosovo in
1999, the internally displaced children from the conflict in 2001 in Macedonia. Now the
refugee children from Syria.
The First Children's Embassy in the World "Megjashi", since its establishment in April 1992
until now, along with the working team, the activists for the children's rights, peace workers
and volunteers, fight for the rights of the children in Macedonia and building culture of peace
from the earliest age. In comparison, the problems that children had in the nineties and today
are seemingly different but to me they are actually the same. In the beginning, in the first 10
years of the establishment, the main task was to care for refugee children affected by war in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and the conflict in Macedonia, and today primarily focus is
the protection of the children from violence and abuse, and mobilizing the public opinion and
the institutions about the refugee children, especially those children who travel
unaccompanied or are victims of criminal structures.
-How do you evaluate the situation of children today and where they are most distorting
and threatening?
The situation of the child labor is alarming. Although the primary and secondary education is
compulsory for all children in Macedonia, however, over 18,500 children are not enrolled in
the regular educational system, more than 3,000 children do not have birth certificates and

3. 2,000 children spend their childhood on the streets, living homeless without parental or foster
care. Most often these children are victims of the worst forms of the child labor. The street
children, if they are not engaged in the nursery and primary education in their first six years
of age, then they are recruited by criminal gangs or they become drug users. The country still
has no complete system of prevention, their effective protection that will guarantee the most
elementary rights to life, health and education. The state should protect the children from
work that is dangerous or might harm their health (Article 19, 32 and 36 of the Convention on
the Rights of the Child). The children have the right to dignified life and free education
(Articles 27 and 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child). Moreover, the Article 1 of
the Convention on the prohibition of the worst forms of child labor, obliges the Republic of
Macedonia to take immediate and serious measures to secure the prohibition and elimination
of the worst forms of child labor. In the Article 3 of this Convention specifies that the worst
forms of child labor apply to all types of slavery, sale and trafficking of children, forced and
compulsory labor, prostitution, offering child for prostitution, production of pornography use,
mediation or offer of a child for illegal activity, especially the production and drug
trafficking, work which by its nature or the circumstances in which it is done harm the health,
safety or the ethic of the children.
-What will be the future activities of "Megjashi" in the context of what it has focused as
a need and a necessity to improve the rights of the child?
The future activities will be focused on mobilizing the state institutions in eradicating or
overcoming the causes that exacerbate the deterioration of children's rights, especially the
right to education. Poverty and illiteracy among children is a major problem that Macedonia
faces. The child labor is closely associated with poverty. Some poor families cannot afford
direct or indirect costs of educating their children. Dealing with this kind of family poverty is
a central part of the strategy to tackle the child labor. The country should also implement
strategies for social protection that will help poor families to get out of the circle of illiteracy,
abuse and poverty. The key is in the education for all the children. The struggle against the
child labor is closely related to the involvement of the children in the education. Therefore
the country should include all the children in the educational process. Moreover, it should
implement educational programs for adults who for various reasons were not included in the
regular educational process.
-In this regard, which is your appeal to people to create a more just world for children?
Let there be no wars, let us build a culture of peace among children from the earliest age. Let
raise our children with values such as love, peace, tolerance, solidarity, humanity and
fairness. Let these values to be taught at home, in the kindergarten, at school. The media have
a key role in their content to produce programs for the children with these values. Peace is
built from the earliest age. If we want to build a culture of peace in a multiethnic society such
as ours, we need to start immediately, in the whole society, in all the spheres of life and in the
children from the earliest age.

4. More righteous world for children is possible only if there is no war, there is clean air and
there are healthy children, if the adopted children are let know their biological parents, if the
children with health and other specific problems are enabled with a high-quality health care
and education, if the children have equal care from both parents that together will take of
him/her after they are divorced, if all children are included in the education and if there are no
children expelled from their hometown as a result of a war or a conflict, if the children are
not forced to prostitution, pornography, if there are not any raped and tortured children, if
there are no poor children. The struggle is difficult, long and requires a lot of commitment
and other comrades who will join us in order to be together with the voice of the children, the
consciousness and conscience of the society, so that we will be the ones who will make the
change for a better and more just world for descent children’s living.
M.V.