Marburg News: Children speak - Adults listen

Children speak - Adults listen
National Children’s and Young People’s Summit Held in Marburg


What happens when children talk about their future? And what happens when these children address demands to the adults who are shaping that future?

About one hundred young people aged twelve through fifteen met between May 13 and 16 in the University City of Marburg to discuss what they expect from their political leadership in terms of making the world a more just place. They talked about a world without children’s work or child soldiers, about a world economy based on fair trade, about a balance between poor and rich countries, and about a health system not used to make money. In addition, they discussed equality between men and women, fair policies for asylum seeker, measures against climate change and protection of their privacy in the age of the World-Wide Web.

During the summit, the young people not only made demands on others, but also on themselves. To stop climate change, they agreed to "reduce CO2 emissions by economizing energy consumption. We want to use low-energy lights, and to convince our parents to use eco-power.” For equality between men and women, they said: "We agreed to think about our clichés and prejudices, and to change them.” These demands and self-obligations of the children and teenager were elaborated in the workshops, signed by all participants in a "future treaty,” and are now to be sent to politicians, including to the members of the Bundestag.

The danger that adults would let children talk and themselves only listen, but do nothing, was avoided in Marburg. Members of the Children’s and Young People’s Parliament in the University City were able to the selection and design of play areas in Marburg’s old town. For example at the Kornmarkt (Grain Market), metal chairs were placed around tables consisting of cast-iron books containing texts from the children’s literature of the world, in the original language and in German. Marburg has also fulfilled the new federal requirements for upgrading childcare facilities for six-month to three-year-olds long before the legal deadline.

For the organizers of the summit, the German Young Nature Friends, to chose Marburg is not only due to its active Children’s and Young People’s Parliament, but also because the city on the Lahn has won the title of the Fair Trade Capital. As Mayor Egon Vaupel stressed during the press conference in the guildhall: "That we are opening this event in a 500-year-old historic building is symbolic. Politics must be sustainable; the planet should be inhabitable even in 500 years. Children discuss things more openly and more directed towards a goal. They often use themselves as the point of departure. That’s why it’s important to give them a voice!”