Around 40 children from the French- and German-speaking parts of Switzerland met in Bern for the national children's conference with the two National Councillors Katharina Prelicz-Huber and Léonore Porchet.
A special kind of meeting took place last week. Schoolchildren from all over Switzerland arrived at the Federal Palace. The children were able to find out whether their demands from the children's conference had a real chance of being implemented, and where in Switzerland the rules for a diverse and strong democracy are written. Perhaps this group includes one of the future federal councillors?
Cross-generational discourse
After a short and informative tour of the parliament building, the children had the opportunity to ask the National Councillors Katharina Prelicz-Huber and Léonore Porchet their questions in one of the many meeting rooms. They asked about Swiss politics and the demands from the children's conference. Ms. Katharina Prelicz-Huber took her time to answer all the questions in detail and in age-appropriate and pictorial language.
"Actually, it would be possible to implement these demands right now,” Prelicz-Huber began her remarks. However, it is up to the cantons or even the municipalities to decide whether they are actually implemented. One of the children present asked, ‘How do adults in parliament stand up for children when they no longer even know what it is like to be a child?’ Do adults seriously think about how children are doing? The politician pointed out the long decision-making processes that also take place when it comes to issues related to children's rights. Her tip to the children: “Never give up, the time will come when your majority will make change possible.”
Children as role models for change
Nora from Basel is a good example: “After the children's conference at the Pestalozzi Children's Village, we told the teachers that we would like more privacy in the girls' changing rooms. When these doors are open, unpleasant situations can arise.” In Nora and her friends' case, the school management subsequently organized the movable walls. It is these changes that the children's conference makes possible by listening to the children and discussing joint implementation measures. At the federal level, these processes are not always as short. But there have been successes here too: the federal anti-bullying campaign was launched and implemented at the suggestion of a past children's conference.
In the world of adults, changes can take a long time. Children, on the other hand, want to see changes quickly, changes that can be felt and seen in weeks and months, not decades. Without short-term successes, as at Nora's school, children and adults alike lose their motivation to solve complex issues together. This is one of the declared aims of the Pestalozzi Children's Foundation: to use education to address children's rights with the aim of applying them in the interests of children.
Helping to shape the young
Through the educational work in the children's village, we encourage children to implement realistic needs. This promotes the participation of the younger generation up to their voting age, because they were already able to help shape change as children. Without taking this target group seriously and investing in targeted measures, children are insufficiently perceived in our society.
There was no time to answer all the questions in Bern, because the Children's Conference left the Bundeshaus at 4 p.m. sharp and dispersed in the direction of western Switzerland, Basel, Zurich and St. Gallen. “Do you want to be a federal councillor too?” one of the children was asked. “No, that's not for me. But next I'll ask in the class council whether we can get rid of homework. That way, we'll have more free time and be able to focus better on school.”
Photos: terre des hommes