Did you ever research what are the rights and obligations of young people in Europe? Do you even know that Europe has many, many youth initiatives to support the rights and more of young people, what are them? What are the most important rights young people have in your opinion? Or more: what are the rights of young people in your home country? What do you think are basic rights that young people should have in every country? Can you think of great ways to make young people aware of their rights? As a young person I have the right too... As a young person I feel that I should have the right to be lawfully assigned basic human rights just like any other human being. In my view, this means that I have the right to be treated equally with others, socially, intellectually and politically, and receive a fair hearing when things go wrong. I also feel that as a young person I need help to make the transition through childhood into informed and responsible adult citizenship. I would go so far as to expect my right to a safe and secure passage with all my basic needs fully met and life chances provided for. So, let me consider whether this expectation is realistic in terms of conditions for young people in Europe and specifically in my own country, Wales, in the United Kingdom, as well as elsewhere in the world. How do we define, young peoples’ rights globally and how do we apply them? How also do we ensure young people know what their rights are? First of all, what is the ‘official’ definition of young people’s rights? In my personal opinion it is difficult to establish a universally applied definition because of the cultural differences between countries. A young person’s rights are often hard to pinpoint and difficult obtain an accurate description for, young people aren’t often aware of their rights as they can be sometimes be difficult to understand and to interpret. An example of this includes the United Nations (UN) Children’s rights convention, as there is an overwhelming amount of information about this convention, which takes time to research and comprehend. The convention came about In 1989, world leaders decided that children needed a special convention just for them because “people under 18 years old often need special care and protection that adults do not”; this led to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention was adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 1990. It became the most widely accepted human rights treaty in history. This convention gave rights in 54 articles and two Optional Protocols, yet these rights are technically not an obligation, they are optional. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) upholds the Convention on the Rights of the Child and they advocate that, “States parties to the Convention are obliged to develop and undertake all actions and policies in the light of the best interests of the child”. Yet no international prosecution will occur if these rights are not met. UNICEF asks that if a nation is signed up to the convention, they will “hold themselves accountable for this commitment”. Every nation signed up to the conventions agreements except for The United States of America and Somalia. The fact that there are not any major repercussions if these rights are not met means there can be different levels of understanding or commitment within a nation, as well as different countries interpreting how to follow these rights in different ways. Even in such a union as
the European Union, the rights of a young person differ on massive scales, especially from East to West. To take it a level deeper, within the United Kingdom the rights of a young person change on certain levels between the different countries that make up that kingdom. I am a Youth Worker in Cardiff, Wales; my understanding of young people’s rights will be based around those rights upheld in Wales itself. In my role as a youth worker, I try to compare those rights to those within Europe, as well as a small look at young people’s rights on a global level, to further my understanding on young people’s rights. On the 20 November 1989, when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), 193 Nations signed the agreement; it provided a guideline for the basic standards for children’s well-being at different stages of their development and is the first universal, legally binding code of child rights in history. The rights are stated in 54 articles, UNICEF has attempted to describe these articles in a more people friendly form, away from the government jargon of the UN General Assembly. The UNICEF website answers crucial questions for young people, especially in the “Are you old enough?” section. This area answers youth related questions on topics such on war, work, sex, voting, and most perhaps most importantly, young people’s right to be heard. There is also a section of the website for youth reading around how to take action when a young person believes that some of these rights are being infringed on and contains a downloadable guide to action. The guide’s suggestions, like the 54 articles, are all based around the CRC's four core principles of non-discrimination, the best interests of the child, survival, development, protection and participation. UNICEF provides much on information on the CRC in a format suitable for young people, but how effectively is it distributed? It has only been 5 years since I left high school in the UK and I was clueless about what CRC was until I became a youth worker. I find frequently that a lot more adults know about the CRC and it articles rather than the young people that they effect, and that this information is not regularly transferred to the young people. The lack of information available to young people regarding CRC seems to infringe on one of the major core principles of the convention; participation. There are a number of organisations that are trying to educate and inform young people about their rights, but frustratingly not nearly enough. Recently, in Willows High School, Cardiff, where I am based, the children's charity Save the Children, have been running a project with the young people which discusses the CRC and runs campaigns to try and ensure that these articles are followed. I felt this was a fantastic way to educate young people about their rights as the young people were not obligated to do the project and chose to do this in their own time and on their terms. The young people participating then used the time they had spent on this project as part of the 'volunteering' section of a UK based qualification called the 'Duke of Edinburgh Award'. This meant that the project based around the CRC was participative, for the young people’s development and in the best interests of the young people. In keeping with CRC, any young person could take part in this project, as there was no discrimination. This is a good example of a project based around the CRC reaching the four core principles.
Within Europe now, there are a large number of organisations ensuring that the information from the CRC is accessible to young people. Article 12 Scotland is one such organisation, making the information readily available, actively getting involved to improve the CRC and is a member of Rights of the Child UK (ROCK), who are a coalition working for the incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into UK law. Article 12 Scotland is outstanding at providing information on the UNCRC at a Scottish level, British level and international level. On their website young people can download the Scottish Government’s most recent report on the UN committee on the rights of the child, (UNCRC), in 3 alternative formats as well as a copy of the UN committees report on the UK and the Scottish response to this report. The organisation is also involved in a campaign to improve the UNCRC by introducing a complaints mechanism. “The UNCRC is the only international human rights treaty with a mandatory reporting procedure which does not have, in addition, an existing or draft communications procedure. This is a serious matter of discrimination against children”. Scotland has shown itself to have a great range of NGOs providing fantastic information for young people about their rights nationally and internationally and how they can get involved. This is similar in other European countries, for example Macedonia (F.Y.R.O), Slovakia, Latvia, Northern Ireland and Czech Republic all have a number of NGOs working in this field, but why is it the NGOs and not the government themselves providing such high quality levels of information? In 2007, the Youth Work Curriculum Statement for Wales (YWCSW) stated that the intention of the statement is to “inform those outside the service of these purposes” as well as “provide common understanding” and a “framework for development”. Like the UNCRC the YWCSW is based around four key principles, is this case what they call the “four pillars of youth work: educative, expressive, participative and empowering”. This statement was put together in 2007 by the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG); the youth service in Wales is one of the most progressive in the world and is almost entirely government funded. One of the main purposes of the statement was to outline the main purposes of the youth service in Wales. It was described as a “universal entitlement” and “is open to all young people with the specified age range 11-25”. The statement then continues and elaborates by declaring “the type, mix and priorities of youth work are determined on a local, national and organisational level” and that “establishment of appropriate provision should be determined by the needs, wants, interests and aspirations of young people”. Achieving these goals is done through a number of methods including centre based work, outreach teams, counselling services, targeted provision, volunteering opportunities, project and residential work. These methods aim to help facilitate relationship building, “involving
young people in the decision making process” and the provision of “curriculum specialities” such as art, sport or the UNCRC. WAG is one of only a handful of governments to have based its education system, especially its youth service, completely around the UNCRC. From being based around four core principles to compacting the 54 articles into ten entitlements. All young people in Wales, no matter their background or situation have ten entitlements, these are: 1. Your rights 2. Being heard 3. Feeling good 4. Education and employment 5. Taking part / getting involved 6. Being individual 7. Easy Access 8. Health and well-being 9. Access to information and guidance 10. Safety and security The YWCSW states that the main purposes of work in Wales are to promote opportunities, empowerment, active citizenship, development and to assist young people “to understand their rights and responsibilities”. The YWCSW is a great basic handbook for youth workers stating the purposes of youth work, how to develop those purposes and put them into practice as well as keeping in mind the unique adaptation and flexibility that youth work requires. Yet as good as the YWCSW is as a guide, it is still down to youth workers, educators alike and the adults of the community to make sure the young people understand their rights and have the opportunity to use them. Theory is important, but practice brings the results. Not all countries have a government funded provision of youth work and therefore the opportunity for a young person to understanding their rights comes from school, volunteers or charity and NGOs. For the majority of the countries in Europe there are great opportunities for youth through such programmes as Youth in Action, European Voluntary Service (EVS) and the Council of Europe as well as several other smaller organisations. Predominantly funded by the European Union, these (predominantly) government funded services provide great opportunities for inter cultural dialogue as well as development in a huge number of areas. These services help to fund youth initiatives on a national level as well as European. A youth centre I work in has a Youth in Action funded youth initiative going on at the moment for a drama based project as well as a Youth in Action funded youth exchange to Latvia taking place in February 2011. I myself as an under 25 have been on both a Youth in Action training and a Council of Europe training, I am also in the process of applying to do a year as a youth worker in Macedonia (F.Y.R.O) through the EVS programme. All these service work through partnership between different organisations across Europe and encourage international exchange of ideas, understanding and methodologies. On Global level, international exchanges are occurring between different organisations from different continents. In 2002, 2004 and 2006 Cardiff Youth Service ran youth exchanges with the Australian Youth Service to the east coast of Australia. In 2006 I was lucky enough to have been given the opportunity at 18 to be a young leader on this trip, empowering me with the responsibility of my own youth group. 4 years on and I am now a
youth worker with several qualifications related to the job. There are also several private, charitable and voluntary organisations helping to provide international learning opportunities to young people. In 2003 I took part in an expedition with a company called World Challenge, in partnership with my high school, to Peru, South America. Global Vision and UNA Exchange are but two of many organisations offering international volunteering opportunities to young people. Recently a new charity called Global Love has been set up in Cardiff in partnership with Cardiff Youth Service to help provide international opportunities for Young People from less privileged backgrounds within Cardiff City. They have recently set out on fund-raising schemes to have a youth exchange with an orphanage in Ghana, West Africa. In conclusion, the rights and obligations of young people in Europe are technically same under the UNCRC but they do vary form country to country, although the basic ethos is the same. Whether a government organisation or a NGO, there are organisations throughout Europe making information on those rights available and using youth initiatives to ensure those rights are used. There are similar events going on globally, but of course the ability to stick UNCRC is in direct compilation with resources such as money and workforce along with the political situation of the country. I find that the idea of the UNCRC is a fantastic one, opening up a large amount of youth initiatives and opportunities across Europe as well as the world. Yet the UNCRC still does not have a real major force behind it, it is not incorporated in to UN or national law for any of the countries who signed the agreement and not every nation bases it’s educational or children's services around the convention. Wales was one of the first countries in the world to base its Children's services completely around the UNCRC. On the 3rd March 2011 Wales will have a vote for more independence from the UK to have its own parliament, if Wales votes yes; one of the proposed changes in law will be to incorporate the UNCRC into national law. If this happens it could be a major stepping stone to making young peoples rights fully respect and with the same status as human rights. Another major problem with understanding young people’s rights is distribution of information. How many young people within the UK understand their rights? In Europe? Globally? Estyn, the education inspectorate for Wales states that Cardiff Youth Service should be making contact with 25% of the young people within the city, as a Cardiff youth I can safely say I would be surprised if we are making contact with 12.5%. New media such as social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter provide a new fantastic way of reaching out to a wider array of young people. Unfortunately government funded provisions have the bureaucracy that comes with government money and therefore use of sites such as Facebook are usually banned. NGOs towards the east of Europe seem to be leading the way with the use of new media to promote youth rights and opportunities. CID and CreACTive in Macedonia (F.Y.R.O) as well as No Label Project based in Czech Republic and Slovakia are very good with their use of new media. To the west of Europe new media usage drops within youth provision, but actual government policies based on UNCRC are a major factor in the national politics leading to government funded youth services. As for socially provided youth service, the Celtic and Baltic countries are leading the way, but as for actually contacting large numbers of young people and informing them about youth initiatives and opportunities, the Slavic countries seem to have a better methodology under-way. Maybe it is just a prime example of how
more inter cultural dialogue is needed to provide a service that suits European young people, and even further, young people across the world. Personally I support the YWCSW four pillars of youth work and the ten entitlements. I believe European youth initiatives are amazing opportunities providing young people with educational opportunities that couldn't be dreamt of 20 – 30 years ago. The global opportunities are growing every day and communication across large distances is getting easier and easier. So UNCRC has provided a framework of children's rights that should in time become within the nations that agree to it. Unions like the UN and EU provide international exchange opportunities for young people and many organisations, government and non-government provide information and advice on youth rights. The informative is available, the projects exist and guidance is provided, the real question is who should be making sure the young people understand and have access to it? Youth workers? Teachers? Parents? My belief is that we are all responsible, adults and young people alike; if you have an understanding of human and children's rights, as a member of society it is your duty to make sure those around you have access to this information. Only through communication, understanding and a sense of responsibility for all can we form an equal world where all rights, adult and child, are upheld. Daniel John Carter With input from Portia Nicholson
Sources www.unicef.org www.article12.org The Youth Work Curriculum Statement for Wales www.nolabel.cz www.cid.mk www.youngwrexham.co.uk www.globallovetrust.org.uk www.assemblywales.org www.estyn.gov.uk www.thealternativeschool.co.uk www.iaw.org.uk www.mnch.gov.pk www.funkydragon.org www.paulofreire.org