Around 40 children from western and German-speaking Switzerland met with the two National Councillors Katharina Prelicz-Huber and Léonore Porchet in Bern as part of the national children's conference.
A special kind of meeting took place last week: Schoolchildren from different corners of Switzerland arrived at the Federal Palace. The children were able to find out whether their demands from the children's conference have a real chance of being implemented and where the rules for a diverse and strong democracy are written in Switzerland. Perhaps one of the future Federal Councillors is in this group?
Intergenerational discourse
After a short and informative tour of the Federal Palace, the children had the opportunity to ask National Councillors Katharina Prelicz-Huber and Léonore Porchet their questions about Swiss politics and the demands from the children's conference in one of the many meeting rooms. Katharina Prelicz-Huber took plenty of time to answer all the questions in age-appropriate and vivid language.
"It would actually be possible to implement these demands right now," Prelicz-Huber began her speech. However, it is up to the cantons or even the municipalities to decide whether they are actually implemented. One of the children present enquired, "How do adults in parliament stand up for children when they no longer know what it is like to be a child? Do adults seriously think about how children are doing?" The politician referred to the long decision-making processes that also take place on issues relating to children's rights. Her tip to the children: "Never give up, the time will come when their majority will make a change possible."
Children as role models for change
Such as Nora from Basel: "After the children's conference at the Pestalozzi Children's Village, we told the teachers that we wanted more privacy in the girls' cloakrooms. If these doors are open, unpleasant situations can arise." In the case of Nora and her classmates, the school management subsequently organised the partition walls. It is these innovations that the children's conference makes possible by listening to the children and discussing joint implementation measures. At federal level, these processes are not always so short. But here too there are successes to report: The federal government's anti-bullying campaign was launched and implemented at the suggestion of a previous children's conference.
In the adult world, revisions can take a long time. Children, on the other hand, want quick changes that can be seen and felt within weeks and months, not decades. Without short-term successes, as at Nora's school, the motivation of children and adults to solve complex issues together dwindles. This is one of the declared aims of the Pestalozzi Children's Foundation: the didactic examination of children's rights with the aim of applying them in the interests of the children.
Helping to shape the young
Through the educational work in the Children's Village, we encourage the children to realise realistic needs. This promotes the participation of the younger generation until they are eligible to vote, because as children they were able to help shape change even before that. Without taking this target group seriously and investing in targeted measures, children are not sufficiently recognised in our society."
There was no time to answer all the questions in Bern, as the children's conference left the Federal Palace at 4 p.m. on the dot and dispersed in the direction of western Switzerland, Basel, Zurich and St. Gallen. "Do you want to be a Federal Councillor now?" one of the children was asked. "No, that's not for me. But next I'm going to ask the class council if we can do away with homework. That way we'll have more free time and can focus better on school."
Pictures: terre des hommes