My Journey with ROR: Seeking Children’s Rights and Shaping Myself by Trina Hoti

Trina Hoti is an advocate for children’s rights and a mentor in the ROR Group. She is 19 years old, comes from Prishtina and is a second year student in the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Pristina.

“What are you going to be when you grow up?” is the question that is often asked by adults against children, who, characterized by the unlimited exercise of imagination, want to become firemen pilots, teachers or singers. Similarly, after dreams of becoming a teacher or news anchor, as I grew up I remember that my desires began to build on the needs I encountered in the community where I lived, starting from adding toys to the city park, to enriching myself with books. were missing from the school library. With such aspirations that often sounded unattainable by a single individual, in 2013 when I was just 12 years old, I began the world of advocacy for children’s rights where I learned that my small voice mattered greatly, and where I educated about my rights, even how I could become the voice of those who were reluctant or unaware of the rights that were guaranteed to them.

From the activities held at the level of the “Naim Frashëri” school, in 2015 I was elected as its delegate in the Municipal Assembly of Children – Pristina, which was re-founded by the organizations Save the Children in Kosovo and the NGO “Syri i Vizionit” in cooperation with the Municipality of Pristina. In the Assembly, I exercised the role of the president and the experience in representing the needs, concerns and demands of children at the municipal level to the decision-making institutions of the capital during three (3) years will remain unforgettable and at the same time stimulating in my growth as an advocate for children’s rights.

Despite my involvement in the assembly, my interest in children’s rights and everything related to it was nowhere better to practice than in the Respect Our Rights Children’s Monitoring Group – ROR, which I knew and was looking forward to joining. . So in 2017 I became part of ROR, first as a member and then as the group’s president. In 2018, when I was elected as such, in ROR we had decided to modify the structure of members in commissions of a specific advocacy nature, and I also headed the School Textbook Monitoring Commission, which during that year published the next research of to the ROR group: “The gap, the curriculum and its applicability”, a report that brought interesting data carried out by questionnaires with children and teachers on topics such as: the level of information about the new educational curricula, the attitudes of students and teachers about keeping or not custodial hours, the load of the teaching schedule and of students during the test period, etc.

“Leading a mandate in ROR was a very dynamic and above all unique experience in providing the opportunity for collaboration with group members and supporting organizations, as well as with the institutional actors we had in focus.”

Trina’s motto in 2018 as part of the Commission for Monitoring School Textbooks of ROR.

During October of that year, an important event as much for ROR as for the country, was the European Week of Action for Girls (English: European Week of Action for Girls) in which I was chosen by the members’ vote to represent the group. and Kosovo for the first time among many other countries of the world. This event, which is organized every year by a wide coalition of international organizations, among which is Save the Children, aims to directly lobby the girl delegates from different countries of the EU and not only, to the institutions of the latter.

Trina in front of the European Parliament building in Brussels, Belgium during the European Week of Action for Girls – 2018.

Considering that the European Parliament elections would be held in May 2019, the week’s agenda was designed in such a way that the 27 female delegates from different countries asked for the increase of MEPs’ engagement in girls’ issues worldwide. Therefore, during the days of my stay in Brussels, I had the honor of raising my voice about the importance of the inclusion of girls in decision-making during meetings in the European Parliament with MPs such as: Anna Maria Corazza Bildt (Swedish MP and head of the group for children’s rights in the European Parliament) , Julie Ward (English MP, member of the delegation for relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, and member of the group for children’s rights), as well as Nathalie Griesbeck (French MP and vice-chair of the group for children’s rights in the Parliament European). Also, a special meeting for me was the one with officials of the Desk for Kosovo within the European Commission, who were very satisfied with the information about the existence and the contribution that ROR made in Kosovo. The week ended with the marking of the International Day of the Girl Child – October 11 in an activity that brought together people from different profiles but with the common goal of improving respect for girls’ rights.

Trina together with several MEPs of the eighth legislature of the European Parliament.

For me, the European Week of Action for Girls undoubtedly remains one of my most beautiful experiences and with the greatest responsibility on my shoulders, because it was the first time that I was representing the voice of the children of my country at the international level and also Kosovo’s participation was for the first time. In addition to the pleasure and honor of meeting dozens of girls who I never imagined that we would share so many common things and challenges, of meeting dozens of important officials of the EU and international organizations who listened with curiosity and seriousness to the ideas and my concerns as a Kosovar girl, the experience in this event has increased my shaping as an advocate for children’s rights. Meanwhile, after returning from Brussels, my blog was published on Save the Children’s website about my experience as a delegate there and part of the ROR, as well as during the March 8 holiday, inviting me to participate in its virtual campaign. asking questions to the candidates for president of the European Parliament, I had the opportunity to get the answer from the then candidate Franz Timmermans (MP of the Social-Democratic Party) on what the potential presidents would do for girls living in non-EU countries.

The answer of MEP Franz Timmermans on his Twitter account regarding Trina’s question.

Of course, my commitment to the ROR Group did not stop there. On November 20 (Universal Children’s Rights Day) of 2018, ROR was the protagonist of the highest meeting in the country – which was held one year after the adoption of the Resolution on Children’s Rights by the children present in the Assembly. of Kosovo and its delivery to the Prime Minister and Speaker of the country – but what was characteristic of this year was the search for accountability regarding the implementation of this resolution to five (5) ministers of the most important departments (Ministry of Education, Science and Technology; Ministry of Health; Ministry of Defense; Ministry of Justice), the Speaker and other officials present, the EU ambassador in Kosovo. In this meeting, I had the pleasure of speaking on behalf of the children’s delegation and expressing the challenges, obstacles and feeling of being a child in Kosovo. The meeting was followed with great attention by the media and the attendees, for me it became a special success with the distribution of my speech on the social media Facebook, which undoubtedly gave due importance to the note of November 20 of that year .

Trina leading the delegation of children in the Assembly of Kosovo on November 20, 2018.

November 20 is preceded by the marking of June 1, which during 2018 was marked not one day, but five (5) days of the week in the framework of the campaign “Every day should be June 1” and where activities were organized for five full days in different municipalities and was crowned with the leadership of the meeting with the Prime Minister of the country on the occasion of the launch of the National Strategy for Children’s Rights.

Trina leading the ROR meeting with the Prime Minister of Kosovo Mr. Ramush Haradinaj (June, 2018).

Another very important issue continues to be climate change and environmental problems, to which ROR has reacted in time. During March 2019, when #FridaysforFuture protests were being organized worldwide every Friday, a movement started by 17-year-old activist Greta Thunberg, ROR organized the first children’s march in Kosovo, which was held in the center of Pristina with children carrying slogans with messages for the protection of our planet. I am happy that I was part of the initiating team and we realized this activity which somehow grabbed the attention of the passers-by in the city squares, the media and our destination, the Government and the Assembly of the Republic, where we stopped to give our messages and requests as a child.

Trina’s message during the first march of Kosovo’s children for the protection of the environment (March, 2019).

From April 2019, my experience with ROR took on another dimension, that of being a group mentor. This is because upon reaching the age of majority, the regular membership is transferred to the voluntary one or to the role of mentor. I still continue to develop this task and I can say that it is a very pleasant experience and from a different angle, from direct engagement in giving and realizing ideas to supporting and following them. I cannot fail to mention that the good energy that prevails at ROR is unrepeatable, I feel at home there and we are truly a family that is growing every day with young and enthusiastic children, and that makes me more than proud.

To conclude, the message I would like to convey to other children is concretized by my example: from a child with little self-confidence that she could change the park or enrich the school library, to an advocate who participates and engages with dedication in compiling policies at the municipal and state level, advocating for the advancement of those of the EU, meeting high state officials and not only, or leading two children’s sessions in the plenary hall of the Assembly and many others at different levels.

“All my experience of six years now for me is much more than documenting photos or taking notes, it is what I am today, it is what has channeled me in choosing a career and allowed me to develop in all ways.”

Such growth makes me understand how important beyond the clichéd saying, support is. Support from an early age is a determining factor in the individual that we produce as a society, therefore investing in children is the wisest state investment and at the same time fundamental for the development of children, translated differently as the realization of rights, which all generations of to the children of the ROR Group and I, we ask them.