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German Children's Summit in Neumünster and World Summit on Children in New York
Almost 100 children between 11 and 15 years old gathered in the "Kiek-in" youth hostel in Neumünster when German Young Nature Friends invited representatives from youth organisations, agenda groups and other initiatives for the fifth Children's Summit. As part of its 875th anniversary the Northern German town with 80000 inhabitants was a perfect host for the event, that was for the second time organised by German Young Nature Friends and under the auspices of the President of the German Bundestag, Wolfgang Thierse.
In workshops on as different topics as traffic, xenophobia, wood or climate children and youths came up with demands towards politics and society. But they also developed self-obligations expressing their will to contribute to a better future for all.
The Children's Summit was opened by the Minister for Justice and Youth of Schleswig-Holstein Mrs Anne Lütkes. This area of responsibility being rather unique in Germany she might be one of the best advocates to transfer children's rights in reality at least on regional level. She explained that participation of children and youths is part of the communal constitution and is obligatory in all planning processes concerning children. Reacting on the massacre in Erfurt some weeks ago where a pupil killed several of his former teachers after being dismissed from school she said that she couldn't see any good reasons for privately owned weapons in our society. Furthermore she argued with the participants about the use of prohibiting videos and computer games showing violence or racism.
It was not merely coincidental that the German Young Nature Friends' Children's Summit in Neumünster and the Word Summit on Children in New York took place at the same time. And that was not the only connection between the two conferences: 16 years old Konstantin Stern from Berlin who participated in the last German summit in 2000 on the EXPO site at Hanover was a member of the official German delegation in New York. As he and the German members of parliament who are in the Children's Com-mission of the Bundestag were in New York and could therefore not be present at Neumünster a live connection was established between the two summits: Members of Parliament from all five parties and children delegates could inform the participants in Neumünster about what had happened in New York. It was again the United States who opposed an international agreement. After Somalia signed the UN-Declaration on the Rights of the Child during the conference the US is the only state remaining that has not signed the declaration yet.
The demands and self-obligations were collected in a so-called Future Treaty that was handed over to several Members of Parliament and the Schleswig-Holstein Government. During the public discussion Klaus Müller, regional minister of the environment, announced that he would ensure that the regional Government of Schleswig-Holstein will deal with the Future Treaty in one of the next sessions of the cabinet.
By the way: The participants not only dealt with every day questions like crowded school buses, missing cycling paths or the demand for cheaper and more frequent public transport, but also with global ques-tions such as prohibiting arms traffic with war areas or measures against climate change.
If you understand some German have a look at www.kindergipfel.de for more information. The German Young Nature Friends could rise a lot of media interest for the young participants and their demands, but mainly on local and regional level. Nevertheless the Future Treaty will be handed over to all Members of the Federal Parliament after the elections in September.
Ansgar Drücker, German Young Nature Friends
Mailadress for further information: mail@kindergipfel.de