Georgetown: The Rights of the Child Commission (RCC) sponsored by UNICEF participated in an International Workshop – Adolescent and Youth Civic Participation held in Brasília, Brazil on the 10th -13th of December 2013. The event was part of the self-managed activities of the Global Human Rights Forum. Approximately 130 participants from twelve (12) different countries attended the international workshop: adolescents, young people, policy makers, leaders of social movements, student leaders and other stakeholders developing programmes and policies aimed at ensuring the right to participation of young people.
The participation of young people has been recognised by international legal documents on specific instruments such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN, 1989) and in many other human rights treaties relating to women's rights, protection against discrimination, and the guarantee of civil and political rights. Many countries including Guyana have incorporated the right to participation of young people on policy level within organisation or institutions and in varying degrees within their national legislations. Moreover, the UNICEF, UNFPA and UNHABITAT offices in Brazil, the Youth Coordination of the Government of the Federal District, and the National Youth Secretariat organised this International workshop as a space for debate, exchange of experiences, and ideas and knowledge for the sharing on civic participation of young people with the objectives to:
• Identify and systematize a framework for the participation of young people based on international norms, legislations and institutions of countries.
• Give visibility to public policies that ensure the participation of young people in decision-making fora regarding the realization of their rights.
• Share experiences of participatory processes led by young people.
• Create space for youth expression on innovative processes of participation, social mobilization and use of new information technologies and communication.
The first day of educational workshops for sharing information on concrete participation experiences and for collective knowledge production to ensure a systematization of the consensus obtained. UNICEF Guyana selected RCC and Youth Media Guyana to share their methodology on child participation based on two areas:
Youth and adolescent participation in education policies, presented by Stefan Farier, the Prime Minister of the Assembly for Children’s Parliament (2011) for RCC. Mr. Farier explained through his presentation the selection process RCC took for bringing together children from eleven (11) educational administrative regions of Guyana to participate in “Children’s parliament.” A forum that was developed by the late President Janet Jagan and reintroduced by the RCC.
The Commission envisioned a forum where the input of children can be received and utilized. Children’s Parliament is intended to create a space for Guyana’s children to bring their thoughts, feelings and opinions about what should be done for them to the highest level. The National Assembly (Parliament) is the highest decision-making body in Guyana. RCC wanted to convince them (the decision makers) that we are going to listen to children and we have a responsibility to do so. Children’s Parliament is not just an activity; it is geared to make children’s views active inputs in decision-making at the national level. Mr. Farier presented the RCC’s methodology for the selection process that entails collaborating with Ministry of Education, Ministry of Culture Youth and Sports and other stakeholders in identifying potential candidates who can prudently represent ideas and the views of children. After the selection process, the participants are trained in parliamentary conduct and debating. Thereafter, the participants discuss and debate relevant topics of their choosing in Parliament. Moreover, representatives of the Children present recommendations to National Assembly. The National Assembly considers the recommendation and discusses the best course of action.
Points made by Mr. Farier on behalf of the RCC/ Guyana:
Mr. Farier did make mention of a few constraints in the selection process and the way recommendations are dealt with in the National Assembly. He said despite the constraints, the experience gained for all the participants is priceless. The experience and knowledge gained has empowered them to be better sons and daughters, students, and citizens.
Youth and adolescent participation using new Information and Communication Technologies presented by Neketa Forde for Youth Media Guyana (YMG). Ms. Forde said that YMG is an award winning youth led organisation dedicated to creating an avenue for youth expression through various forms of ICTs and multimedia, thereby empowering youth to advocate for their rights. They were a total of six workshops with presenters from: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico, and Norway.
The last two days (11 and 12/12) were organised as self-managed activities of the Global Forum on Human Rights with a presentation and discussion about the contexts of participation of young people at national, regional and global levels, and on existing public instances for participation.
Representatives from RCC and the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sports participated in several workshops at the World forum of Human Rights. Some workshops attended representative include: Human Trafficking for Sexual Purposes: A Latin-American Reality; Strategies towards Development and Strategies to Fight Racism; Child Labor: Violation of Human Rights of Children and Adolescents; Access to Socioeconomic Data for Social Control of Public Policies; Human Rights of Adolescents in conflict with their law and criminality and the launching of the manual Understanding Human Rights; and on 12th December, 2013 Human rights of Adolescents in Conflict with their Law and Criminality followed by the launch of the manual Understanding Human Rights.
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