Domestic Violence Against Children – Negation Of Fundamental Rights

Children are the most sensitive part of a sciety, therefore the violence against them is considered a serious violation of their personal rights and their higher interests.

In most of cases, children in Republic of Macedonia are very little or not at all informed concerning the possibilities of reporting the cases of violence against them by their parents or relatives (sisters, brothers, grandparents). The issue of domestic violence is still considered a private problem which occurs within the home. Thus, in most of cases, this problem remains unsolved in silence, without any alert for the state institutions or SOS phone lines for reporting domestic violence. Some children who are more aware for being subjected to violation of their rights are afraid to report the case because of further consequences.

In this article some facts will be given about observing the symptoms and signs of violence against children, forms and types of violence against children, determination factors of the violence as well as the consequences and the impact of the domestic violence on the physical and psychological development of children.

Based on the legal provisions and international conventions, parents, responsible institutions and the society in general are morally and legally obliged to respect and preserve the interest of the child. This article will show that in practice, these legal obligations are violated by parents and in specific cases also by the competent institutions because the lack of intervention.