First Children Embassy in the World – “Medjashi” 15 years for protecting children’s rights  The First Children Embassy in the World - “Medjashi” is celebrating 15 years of its founding and work. It was founded on 29 April 1992 in Skopje as a world association and it is the first registered international non-for-profit, non-party and non-governmental organization in the Republic of Macedonia for protecting the children’s rights in the transition period. With its work, “Medjashi” promotes the respect for the children’s personality, the protection of their rights and the representation of their interests. With its activities, the organization contributed to a great extent to developing and strengthening the awareness of the children’s rights in the Macedonian society. As they say at “Medjashi”, they are especially pleased with the fact that the myth and the silence regarding the children suffering, especially their physical, sexual and economic abuse, have finally been demystified. This organization revealed in public some shocking stories about the children abuse and engaged itself for establishing more efficient mechanisms for children protection. In its 15-year existence and work for realizing its mission, “Medjashi” was engaged in sheltering the war refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina, when it helped about 60,000 children. It opened the first SOS-phone line for children and young people and the psychological counseling center in the Republic of Macedonia; it lobbied actively for passing the Hague Convention on the civic-legal aspects of international kidnappings of children (it was passed in 1995) and it conducted a campaign for ratifying the Convention 182 and the Recommendation 190 for urgent elimination of the worst forms of children labor (they were ratified in 2002), for establishing the Children Ombudsman (this was realized in 1999); it gave support to the children-refugees and their families from Kosovo. In 2006 and open the first refuge for children in crisis, which shelters 16 displaced people from Aracinovo, eight of which are children and three of which were born in the refuge. All the above mentioned, as well as many other activities were the reason why in 2001, “Medjashi” won the Award for Civil Society and Democracy for their long-term contribution in building the civil society in the Republic of Macedonia, which is presented by the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation.   M.I.