Meeting of the Current Affairs Committee, 1 July 2015

Agenda items 9, 10.1.a, 10.3.2a-c : Bringing down barriers to youth participation: a lingua franca for local and regional authorities and young people

Speaking notes by Malcolm Byrne, Congress Thematic spokesperson on youth

Meeting of the Current Affairs Committee

Strasbourg, 1^st July 2015

Check against delivery

Agenda item 9 : Bringing down barriers to youth participation: a lingua franca for local and regional authorities and young people

Colleagues:

In 2012 our former colleague, Els Ampe, from Belgium presented us with a  report  on “youth and democracy: the changing face of youth political engagement”.  In her report, Els dispelled the widespread belief that young people have disengaged from democracy, a belief founded on the fact that they are voting less, and that their membership in political parties is declining.  Her report concluded that, in spite of soaring unemployment rates, job insecurity, and ever more difficult transitions from school to work, young people’s democratic values are still strong.  Unfortunately, in today’s society, young people feel marginalised from the political process and tend to distrust political institutions, which is why they are engaging in different forms of democratic activities: activities which are appropriate to their own understanding of democracy and citizenship.

As elected representatives, I think we can be relieved to hear that the young citizens of our towns and regions are still committed to democracy.  What should concern us however is why they are not committed to the same expressions of democracy as we are.  As the Congress’ Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life says, the direct involvement of youth in the affairs of society is essential if we wish to safeguard democracy.  Without citizen participation, democracy is at risk.

So why is there this difference in the ways we practice democracy?  This is the question our former colleague, Nataliia Pilius asked when she chose to follow up on our 2012 report.  Unfortunately, Nataliia is no longer a member of the Congress and is not here to present the work she started, the result of which is this report you are asked to approve today.

If the title of this report talks of barriers and a lingua franca, it is because young people and elected representatives just do not talk the same language and there are several obstacles in their way to finding common ground.  What matters most for us politicians is  voting and standing for election.  If our fellow citizens did not vote in elections, we would not be here.  Perhaps the first question we should ask then is why are young people not voting?  Young people’s rejection of politics can be seen as a symbol of the society which they feel has betrayed and alienated them – after all, they have been hardest hit by the crisis.  The policies that we are making today do not represent the reality of their daily lives.  If we are to design policies that do “speak” to young people, then we must listen to what they need, we must let them have their say.  The Congress has recently been inviting youth delegates to take part in our sessions because we want to let them have their say in the work we are doing in our committees so that the recommendations we adopt in plenary meet their needs as well as ours.

And herein lies another obstacle to this partnership we should be building with young people: local and regional authorities tend to limit youth participation to issues that “concern young people directly”.  We think that young people can only be interested in whether they have a skate park or a youth club.  We keep the “big issues” to ourselves, the “grown-ups”.  However, I am sure the youth delegates who will join us in our next session will prove us wrong on that point too and will have much to say in all of our debates, regardless of the subject matter.  Issues such as state sovereignty, austerity measures and  social inclusion concern young people too.  They are not our, the politicians’, exclusive domain.  We must give young people space to express their opinions, we need to learn to listen to what they are saying and, most importantly, we need to make policies together so that they reflect their needs.

Another of these barriers is authorities’ and their representatives’ perception of young people.  Just as society as a whole is made up of a diversity of different people, so is the group that we call “youth”.  Young people are not a homogenous group and our policies must reflect that diversity.  Another misconception is that we tend to see “youth” as a transition to control and manage.  We place them in a subordinate position to us, and perceive them as something “in the making” rather than what they really are, that is to say full citizens.

 

Some people are only too ready to denounce what they think is the anti-democratic or antisocial behaviour of young people, such as demonstrations and graffiti.  Colleagues, participation is crucial to the development of young people’s sense of responsibility for community life.  It helps them to acquire democratic citizenship skills and empowers them to take active charge of their lives and communities.  If we, politicians, do not give them the opportunity to participate in policy making, if we persist in taking decisions that meet our needs but not those of our young citizens, if we persist in treating them as “lesser citizens”, of course they will turn to new ways of making themselves heard.  And these may well be new ways which we consider inappropriate.

Colleagues, later I will inform you about the work of the Congress’ new ad hoc group on youth participation.  The Congress has been committed to promoting youth participation for over 20 years now. Our Charter dates from 1993 and was a culmination of years of work on the issue.  And yet it seems there is a lot of work to do.  For these reasons, and those I have already cited, I urge you to approve the preliminary draft resolution and recommendation I am presenting you with today.

Agenda item 10.1.a

Terms of reference on “Forever young? The role of youth policies and youth work at local and regional levels in supporting young people’s transition to autonomy and working life”

Colleagues, we have just approved a report on the importance of creating the right conditions for dialogue between elected representatives and young people and of giving young people a say in policy and decision making.  Citizen participation is not just about dialogue however.  In order to be able to participate fully in society, young people also have to be in a situation to be able to participate.

Over the past few years, the Congress, and especially this committee, has discussed at length the on-going economic and financial crisis.  Young people have been hit particularly hard by the crisis however, this is not just an economic crisis, it is also a human rights crisis and young people are finding it increasingly difficult to access and exercise their human, social and economic rights.  This is another reason why their faith and trust in democracy is declining.  If their rights are not respected, young people’s transition to adult life will be all the more difficult.  Efforts must be made, at all governance levels, to promote young people’s autonomy and their social inclusion in society. 

There was a time when young people went to school, got a job, got married and started a family.  Their paths to autonomy were straight and uncomplicated.  This is no longer the case.  An increasing number of young people are still living with their parents because they are unemployed and do not have the means to live autonomous lives.  Some get a job and leave home only to become unemployed again and obliged to move back in with parents, what we call a yo-yo transition because they go back and forth, from autonomy to dependence.  Without a certain amount of stability, young people’s quality of life, their well-being and their capacity to exercise their human and social rights are threatened.  This is why this process of transition to adult life should not just focus on the end result of becoming autonomous and integrating the labour market but also on the quality of life.

One of the priorities of the Council of Europe for 2016 and 2017 is to promote young people’s access to rights by supporting youth policy and youth work, as well as facilitating their transition to autonomy, citizenship and their social inclusion.  Local and regional authorities in many of the Council of Europe’s member States have competence for youth policy and youth work, thanks to which we guarantee young people’s access to their rights.  This is why the Congress will be co-operating with the Youth Department on this programme.  Together, through a series of activities and through research, we will draw up recommendations on what all levels of governance should be doing to ensure this.  I will update you regularly on this programme and will also call on you at some stage to come forward with your policy responses to the issue of ensuring the successful transitions of our young citizens.

Colleagues, policies at all levels need to provide young people with the knowledge, skills and competences they need in order to play a full part in society.  They must also give young people the support they need in their complex process of transition to autonomy and full adulthood.  This report will make policy recommendations on how we, local and regional authorities, can help young people with this transition.  I invite you to approve the terms of reference.

Agenda item 10.3.2, Congress youth activities

Presentation of the Congress’ youth activities by Malcolm BYRNE (R, ILDG), Thematic Spokesperson on Youth

a)    Information on the ad hoc group meeting, evaluation of the participation of young people in the 28th session and preparations for the 29th session;

b)    Update on the Enter! Project;

c)    Consultation  on the draft CM recommendation on young people’s access to rights

a.

As you know, a number of youth delegates joined us for our last two sessions.  The Congress is the first Council of Europe institution, excluding the Youth Sector, to take this ground-breaking step of giving young people their say in its work, which is only to be expected considering our long-standing commitment to promoting youth participation.  This experience of opening our doors to young people was so successful that the Congress Bureau took the decision to set up an ad hoc group to examine the feasibility of introducing a method for engaging in a structured dialogue with young people.

The group is composed of two members of the Congress Bureau: our colleague John Warmisham from the Chamber of Local Authorities and Gunn Marit Helgesen from the Chamber of Regions, and myself, as well as three representatives of the Youth Sector’s co-management system.  We have been charged with drawing up a proposal which will be presented to the Bureau at its first meeting in 2016.  If the Bureau approves the proposal, it will be submitted for debate to the Congress at its first session next year.

Our group met on 21 May and spent the day brainstorming on how we see youth participation in the Congress’ work and on ideas on how to achieve it.  Our second meeting should have taken place yesterday but unfortunately, for reasons beyond their control, two of our members could not be present.  The meeting will be held in the near future and we will continue our exchanges in order to carve out a good proposal.

Last March, we again invited a number of young people to take part in our session.  For budgetary reasons, we limited the number to fifteen and invited the youth delegates from the 27th session to decide amongst themselves who should represent them.  The main aim for the youth delegates was to draw up their ideas of youth participation in the Congress’ work which they presented to John Warmisham and which we discussed last month.

Preparations are well underway for the 29th session when, again, a certain number of young people will join us in the hemicycle and in our committee meetings.  The selection was made yesterday and the Secretariat will be informing the successful applicants of the result shortly, the heads of our delegations will also be informed soon.  I hope that after having read the report we approved earlier, you will look at the youth delegates in a different way next October!  Quite appropriately as we are meeting here in s’Hertogenbosch, our sincere thanks go to the Netherlands’ delegation which has generously offered to finance the participation of the Dutch young person.

b.

Tomorrow I will return to Strasbourg to take part in the second Enter! Youth Meeting.  Our Committee has been following very closely the Youth Department’s Enter! project to promote access to social rights for all young people so it needs no introduction.  One hundred and eighty young people, youth workers and local and regional authorities’ representatives, from across Europe, have gathered in Strasbourg this week to exchange their experience on promoting access to social rights.  The young participants are speaking from experience as they are all taking part in projects which are helping them to have full access to their rights: to education and housing for example, or to live their lives free from violence and discrimination.  The message these young people will deliver to the Council of Europe and its member States will usefully inform my new report on autonomy which is why it is important for me to be there to listen and talk to the participants. 

Malcolm

Eunice Campbell-Clark, rapporteur on the integration of young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods will also take the floor as she has been involved in the project since the outset and took part in the preparatory meeting.  I have asked her to invite the Committee members to send examples of good (and bad) practices to me so that we can share these with the Youth Department.  If she doesn’t do this, feel free to ask for the floor again.

c.

Colleagues, you have received with the agenda a draft recommendation on young people’s access to rights.  This text has come about following a proposal by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to draft a recommendation on this subject.  The Assembly is convinced that unhindered access of young people to fundamental rights is an essential element in building a culture of human rights, democracy and the rule of law – the Council of Europe’s guiding principles – but is concerned that youth policies in the Council of Europe member States do not sufficiently safeguard these rights.  The Assembly would like to see the adoption of a binding instrument on this subject, in a convention. However, in view of the work involved in such a task, the Assembly has suggested to begin working on a non-binding text.  The Committee of Ministers has encouraged the youth sector co-management bodies, in consultation with other relevant bodies, to submit proposals on such a text.  This draft has been prepared by the youth sector in co-operation with the Steering Committee for Human Rights.

As we at local and regional levels also have a duty to ensure young people have full access to all of their fundamental rights, the Congress has been asked to contribute to the text.

As you can see from the appendix to the draft recommendation, the text will not address the specific rights themselves, but will rather propose measures to improve access to them.  These measures concern access to education; to autonomy and social inclusion of young people (of importance to my next report); to youth mobility; to active citizenship, democracy and participation (our two reports on youth participation are of relevance here); on living together in diverse societies; to access to information and protection; and on access to health care services.

We have been asked for our contribution by the end of July so, in order to give the Secretariat time to collate our proposals, I would invite you to send your suggestions to Joanne Hunting, who is now responsible for youth issues in the Congress secretariat, by 17 July 2015 at the latest.  We would like to receive not only your proposals but also any examples of good practice you may have in your municipality or region.

Thank you, colleagues, in advance for your co-operation.