Youth Voices in Democracy

This project will encourage youth (primarily in Africa, but not exclusively) to explore public (youth) participation in the law-making process and prepare a submission to local, provincial or national government or any other law-making structure. Firstly, youth will be encouraged to explore the law-making process in their respective countries and whether there is space for public participation. Then, each participating group will select a piece of legislation, preferably that has not yet been signed into law yet, or an issue, workshop their perspective with other youth in their country and then request an opportunity to present this youth perspective to parliament or local government as representative of the views of the participating youth. The suggested theme is 'Healthy Environments' and each group participating can select a specific focus or legislation related to the issue of health or the environment in their country. Later, all these youth perspectives can be exchanged with the rest of the participants and possibly presented to an international body like the UNO.

Facilitated by: Reza Bardien in South Africa

Ages: 14 years and older

Languages: English, French, Portuguese and Arabic (using translation tools)

Dates: Sept 2002 - Sept 2003

Contact: For more information about participating in this or other iEARN projects, write to iearn@iearn.org.