Children's City Council Opatija Nominated for Child Participation Award

Eurochild Croatian member's project needs your support to win the Initiative Inspire Award for meaningful child participation.

Launched in June 2019, the first-ever Child Friendly Cities Initiative Inspire Awards celebrate projects that foster children’s rights at the local level and improve the lives of children in the communities they live in. Twenty entries selected by a panel are now ready to be voted online by the public. 

The child friendly city of Opatija and the organisation Society “Our children” Opatija hosted the Eurochild 2018 Conference “Building a better Europe with children: All aboard!” which brought positive examples of how public decision-makers are respecting the right of children to participate in decisions affecting them.  

Petra, 16 is the Children’s Mayor of the City of Opatija and inspired audiences at the Conference with her speech. She is now a member of the Eurochild Children’s Council which is a group of a dozen children across Europe who are impacting their communities. Watch the video below in which she describes Opatija as a child-friendly city: 

Children’s City Council Opatija exists since 2001 and is a legal body that allows children to monitor public decision making and help set budgets. The project is a collaboration between the City of Opatija and Eurochild member Society “Our children” Opatija. Opatija is part of the “Child Friendly City” network established by UNICEF which includes 93 towns across Croatia with a specific set of standards and collaborative spaces between adults and children.

The Initiative Inspire awarding ceremony will take place on 17 October at the global Child Friendly Cities Summit in Cologne.

Learn more about the Children’s City Council Opatija