Children to power!
What would the world look like if children ruled it? Perhaps the armies would be made of jelly babies, the tanks of marzipan and children would simply eat the wars - childishly ingenious. At least that's how the German singer Herbert Grönemeyer imagines the world in the hands of children in his song «Kinder an die Macht».
The song stormed the charts in 1986 - a full three years before the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted. On 20 November 1989, the time had come - since then, 20 November has been known as Children's Rights Day. On this day, the Pestalozzi Children's Foundation, together with the Swiss Association of Youth Organisations (SAJV) and the Swiss Children's Lobby, organises a children's conference at which children reflect on their rights and make demands of politicians. It is a conference where children have their say.
Children know exactly what they want and what they don't want.
And the children are happy to take charge: «We demand that products sold in Switzerland be labelled as to whether they were made with or without child labour,» demanded the 10 to 13-year-old girls and boys at last year's conference at the Pestalozzi Children's Village in Trogen, for example.
In other demands, the children dealt with their safety and the protection of their privacy on the internet and when using social networks. Children know exactly what they want and what they don't want. In order for them to be able to communicate this, they must be given the appropriate space - and not just at the children's conference in Trogen. The right to have a say is the basis for their understanding of democracy.
Many schools have recognised this and allow children to have a say in new designs and renovation work. The concerns of children and young people must be heard. Not only on small issues, but also on big questions. Because today's children will be faced with problems in the future that we do not solve. Or to put it in the words of Herbert Grönemeyer: «The world belongs in the hands of children, put an end to the gloom. We will be laughed into the ground, children to power!»
About the Pestalozzi Children's Foundation
The Pestalozzi Children's Foundation is an internationally active children's aid organisation. Children and young people have been at the centre of its activities since 1946. The Children's Village in Trogen is a place of peace-building, where children from Switzerland and abroad learn to deal with cultural and social differences through exchange. In twelve countries around the world, the foundation provides disadvantaged children with access to quality education.
www.pestalozzi.ch
