Albania People Ombudsman : Put an end [to the presence of] children in electoral campaigns

April 24, 2009

Comment: A large number of children take part in events of electoral campaigns and frequent party rallies. ‘BalkanWEb’ reports the urge of the Albanian People’s Ombudsman which calls the Minister of Education to stop this phenomenon. The People’s Ombudsman call on the Minister to take measures regarding this phenomenon, especially considering that such things happen during school time. According to the People’s Ombudsman, political parties use teachers and their pupils to go out in rallies and “fill” the squares or the meeting rooms where these rallies take place. Almost all parties involve children in such meetings.

This article illustrates how in some cases children are instrumentalised during the elections and the implications such phenomenon can have. Politicians, teachers, school directorates and others do not see a responsibility protecting children from such activities and do not realize the risks of such activities.

Most of the children come to the rallies unaccompanied, without the parents being informed on the matter and during school time. At such events, children are pushed to perform degrading activities: they are encouraged to scream and shout in favor of the party which is organizing the event. In many cases they are mistreated by older peers or by the crowd. Children involved can be of a very young age up to teenagers. The “exploitation” of children to such political events should come to an end. Undoubtely children have the right to be heard and their point of view should be taken into account.

The original article (in Albanian) can be found here