A Democratic tool for the voice of youth

A very successful Refugee Week, in which Gelly Aroni and Rolf Gollob from our Living Democracy Team took part (see newsletter June 22), ended with a closing event that took place on Sunday 26 June entitled “What do young people believe for inclusion and diversity?”

During the event, the results of a poll conducted through the U-Report Greece platform on the views of young people on the social inclusion of refugees and immigrants, diversity, and the importance of mutual care were presented. https://greece.ureport.in/join/

Young Greeks and their peers with refugee and migrant experiences participated in a panel discussion coordinated by a young person in which they discussed, exchanged their views and ideas, expressed their worries and also their proposals for more democratic, inclusive communities. Fridoon Joinda, a young talented filmmaker from Afghanistan, together with Hana Ganji, an Afghan born in Iran and Vice President of the Afghan Immigrant and Refugee Community in Greece, shared their stories about their journey to Europe and discussed how to strengthen democracy in their local communities with their Greek peers.

https://www.living-democracy.com/principals/democracy/

For U-Report’s second poll, young people discussed the importance of active participation and engagement in community matters. U-Report Greece is only three months old, as UNICEF Greece and the Network for Children’s Rights only launched the project at the end of March. Its aim is to enhance youth participation in democratic life and to empower young people to share their opinions on matters that affect them and their communities. The objective of U-Report is to foster a sense of active citizenship amongst adolescents and 14-25 year-olds and include their voices into the policy-making process. The right to participate in decision-making affecting their health, well-being and development is enshrined in Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and as Principals’ sequence Participation highlights, it is of vital importance for schools to provide relevant real-life experiences for their students to participate in the school community.

U-Report is a UNICEF platform launched in 2011 and used by more than 21 million children and young people across 88 countries. The platform gives young people a chance to express their views on political and social issues that concern them by responding to polls on topics ranging from their expectations from the authorities to mental and physical health, child obesity and nutrition, climate change and more. The received responses are then analysed in real-time, mapped, and displayed on a public dashboard, ensuring the young people’s feedback can be actioned by local and national decision-makers. 

For those of us who work with children and youths and wish to empower their voices, it is well worth exploring the opportunities that this tool has to offer!

https://www.unicef.org/innovation/U-Report