We did it - Youth Justice in Action!

So we did it!

We wrote and delivered two oral interventions in the main Council, one as part of a debate on the Secretary General’s report into Juvenile Justice and another in the debate on the human rights of women. We hosted a parallel event, chaired by the Austrian Government, where we told of our experiences and offered solutions to upholding young people rights on juvenile justice. We met our own national representatives and ambassadors and met with the offices of three UN Special Rapporteurs, on Education, on Torture and on Extra-judicial killings. WE presented our research to how much our countries were abiding by Resolution 10/2

We told the UN and our governments that youth justice systems have to be fair and they must follow Resolution 10/2.

The campaign comtinues in each of our countries.........

Read our blog to find out more or keep visiting the Youth Justice in Action website and join our facebook page

Side event

Pictures from our side event where Ibata, David, Luis and Dan-i-el all spoke. It was hosted and chaired by H.E. Ambassador Christian Strohal, Permanent Representative of Austria in Geneva, and the other speakers were; Séverine Jacomy Vité, Specialist - Child Protection, UNICEF Regional Office for CEE/CIS and Anna Volz, Interim Secretariat Coordinator, Interagency Panel on Juvenile Justice

The room was full and we really got our opinions across.

Our big day!

Well today's the day,
We are runnig a side event in partnership with the Austrian Goverment and the DCI(Defence for Children International) on Juvenile Justice. Dan-i-el, Luis, Ibata and David will be telling their own stories. All are excited and a little nervous but they will be amazing.Good Luck Guy's.

Barker live at the UN!!!

Here is Barker - doing our 2nd speech to the whole UN council!

And why not puts Jade again!!

Meeting with the office of the Special Rapporteur...

This morning Ibata and David met with representatives from the office of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment.

This is what happened in their own words… we started by introducing ourselves and had coffee :) There was a lady there (Delores) representing the Special Rapporteur and a man from the committee of Human Rights.

We talked about our hopes for our youth justice campaign. We explained exactly the torture that we, ourselves, had faced in our countries and told them about the different types of torture that we had encountered in our own prisons. They asked us about our research and our actions and how our YMCAs are working to eradicate the problem. David told how his YMCA in Sierra Leone had contacted the ministry of justice in Sierra Leone. They asked us what kinds of resource people or organisations had helped us and they gave us some contact details for more people and organisations that can help us when we return to our countries.

Delores told us about the Universal Periodic Review process to bring specific allegations of torture against our governments.

Tomorrow, Luis is meeting with the Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Killings.

Non-stop campaigning!

Its all a bit busy here, so we will post with details soon but yesterday:

• Barker did a second speech to the whole UN council
• Luis had a long meeting with the Ambassador from Guatemala and talked for a long time about the killings of young people
• Barker met with the UK delegation and talked to them about the research the YMCA has done and why the UK is not complying with the resolution - they are going to fix the group up with a meeting at the Ministry of Justice
• We've all been inviting people to our side event on thursday
• Jade, Ibata and David are busy trying to fix meetings with country representatives and regional delegates for Africa
  

Today

• Ibata and David are meeting with the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment to talk about the experince of young people in prison in Togo and Sierra Leone
• We are writing and planning our speaches for our side event with the Austrian Government tomorrow

So updates soon with more details on what we have done and hopefully that video of Barker in the UN!

And keep the comments coming, its great to here from you guys!

Link to the Live Chat - Thursday 10 June - 7pm GMT

Hi everyone,

As you may know, we are holding a special live chat with the campaigners on Thursday evening. What you might not know is that we're having videochat too!

To get involved simply go to http://tiny.cc/yjiachat

The chat room is pretty simple to use. Simply give yourself a nickname (please do not use the YJIAcampaigners nickname) then enter the password - YJIA

To view our video click on our "nickname" in the bottom left and it should display the webcam in the area above. If you have a webcame you should also be able to use it to do live, face-to-face chat with us!

One thing to explain is that you can either ask us private questions by sending personal messages or you can chat in the "lobby" area where everyone will see what you are saying.

Any questions please comment on this post or ask us in the chat room.

Hope you get involved - speak to you soon!

Mike

Jade live in front of the whole Council!

super duper barker

well done barker you did brilliantly...we are all so proud of you. bet you cant wait to see the video?? ha ha

love and kisses chicken,

jayde

xXx

Word's are not enough

What Barker has just acheived has made me so proud, after over a year of working on this campaign he has been able to make our views heard in the UN. I am not only so proud of him but of all you guy;s. Thank you so much for all your efforts. Let's look forward to Thursday. Keep up the hard work it is paying off. WELL DONE!

The YJIA Team!

Youth Justice in ON THE AGENDA!

Here is the empty Council before they begin this mornings debate


They are debating two reports written about juvenile justice by the UN Secretary General and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (A/HRC/14/34 and A/HRC/14/35 for the UN geeks amongst you - click the links to read them)

This debate is ONLY happening and these report written because of the Resolution that the group worked so hard last year to see passed

So a massive shout out to the guys from last year!!

-- YJIA campaigners

**UPDATE - Our friends at DCI has just made a great statement in the Council about juvenile justice with the World Organisation Against Torture. They said they had "observed a large misuse of child detention...and conditions of detention that may amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and even torture in some countries". They called on the the Council to "effectively seize the question of juvenile justice" - Lets hope they do! Thanks DCI!

Jade at the UN!

Scroll down to find the World Alliance of YMCAs and you will see Jade talking to the whole council! Amazing!!

http://www.un.org/webcast/unhrc/archive.asp?go=100607

Ablar con la delegada de Guatemala

bueno pareciera que en este camino en el que muchas acj del mundo enpesaro a caninar apartir del 2008 a rais del acecinato de mis conpaneros de acj amatitlan e encotrado un pequena lus hoy pude ablar con la delegada de guatemala aqui en la onu sobre una reunion para tratar el tema de ejecuciones extra judiciales quien esta decuerdo en colavorar com migo y me dara una cita en estos dias para ablar de este tema aun me falta ablar con personas de nicaragua y honduras estas reuniones son para saber como ven el tema las diferentes delegaciones y posterior mente travajar en el discurso que precentare el jueves ablare de este tema porque me parece inportane no eredar estas practicas tan inumanas a las futuras generaciones

Luis

the vision of one...

ok, so i forgot the poem lol, so here it is...

we all walked alone as we entered this place,
from all walks of life, different worlds, different race,
with only one mission, to obtain a goal,
which will bring us together and make us all whole.
criminal justice and the time people serve,
is this the life you think they deserve?
kept behind bars, with no chance of escape,
trapped in their minds, contemplating their fate,
thats in the hands of another, who just cant be arsed,
to stick to the resolution we helped to get passed,
but here we are now, to stand and make change,
we have all the pieces we have to arrange,
the vase is just broken, and we are the glue,
with the heart of a lion, theres nothing we cant do,
we'll place all the pieces and reunite all,
we'll all stand together and no one shall fall...

a few thoughts

barker here, just thought id put a couple of thoughts and then ill follow it up with a poem i have written about our time here in geneva.

firstly i want to congratulate jayde, she managed to pull out a fantastic performance out there!

next i want to let you know that i am petrified about this, having to talk in the council is definatly the hardest thing ill ever have to do, but theres no way im stopping now.

but yeah, having a great time, it very thought provoking, helps you see the better side in life, and we are all working really well together, there are some great people here and we have had a good laugh, but its not all fun and games. some of the things some of us have had to endure in our lifes, and the stories we have heard over the duration of this event, are really humbling, and they make us appreciate the lives we do have back at 'home', wherever we decide home is.

At the UN

Hi i am David from Sierra Leone and i haved joined the the Team. My colleague Jade just had an oral interventoin at the council and it was really to hear her speak. We are now trying to talk to our National represeatatives

one speech down and one more to go...ecstatic

Oh my God, I'm just out of the council and I've done my speech on women's human rights and I'm so ecstatic right now. It went quite good considering how nervous I was, but a nice smoke soon calmed me down ahhhh! all the pressure is now on poor Chris as he still has to do his yet...I can not believe I just spoke in the same room as the President....scary but great...

And i just want to say a big THANK YOU to all my colleagues who helped with putting the speech together. Guys you are wonderful ;)

We will post the video on the blog soon :)

See ye, Jade.

Assistance de mes collegues aux nations unies et ma rencontre avec le representant du Togo

Mes collegues chris barker et jade murphy vont faire une intervention oral de 2 minutes aujourd'hui... Pas faciles hein!!! Moi je dois rencontrera represantante du Togo pour me presenter et l'inviter au side event qui aura lieu le jeudi .?!.?! Je pense que je suis amoureux de ce projet hummmmmm........

Ibata
Location:Geneve 07 avril 2010

"My colleagues Chris Barker ad Jade Murphy are going to make an oral intervention of two minutes today...Not easy! Myself, I have to meet the Togo representative to present myself and invite him to the side event that will take place on thursday....I think that I am in love with this project...." (Matts bad translation)

Working hard

- Youth Justice in Action young campaigners

en memoria de las juventudes vilentadas

bueno yo soy un joven de la ciudad de guatemala me encuentro en estos momentos en la asamblea de derechos humanos en la onu realmente lo que me trae a este lugar es tanta injusticia en centroamerica viendo en este evento la oportunidad de denunciar tantos actos de violencia e inpunidad que estan cercenando nuestros paises dejando como saldo una lista interminable de jovenes asesinados en formas muy similiares a las utilizadas en las guerras de america central por la manera en que el estado ignora todas las muertes da la pauta o pareciera que todas la muertes responden a una especie de plan en el cual el unico objetivo es exterminar a las juventudes de america exterminio del cual ya forman parte 3 de mis mejores amigos es por eso que ya hay que hacer algo con esta situacion y no dejar que esta lista crezca dia con dia como lo ha hecho en los ultimos tiempos.

Luis
I am a young fellow from Guatemala City who is attending the Human Rights Council meeting at the United Nations in Geneva, seeing in this meeting the opportunity to denounce so many acts of violence and impunity which are damaging our countries, producing an endless list of killings of young people by means very similar to those used during the civil wars in Central America. The governments' silence vis-a-vis these killings seem to reflect an intentional plan aimed at decimating Latin American youth. Three of my friends were victims of these actions. We have to do something to grapple with this situation and to prevent that the list of extra judicial killings keeps growing as in these past few years.

Luis

Everyone is here!

- Youth Justice in Action young campaigners

In the council

So today we went to the council for the first time. Here is Jade and Ibata in the main hall.

Sadly there is 2 of us missing. The storms in Guatemala have delayed Luis and following a few false starts he is now due here on Saturday

David is also still in Freetown. The BMI flight staff wouldn't let him fly as they thought he was an 'immigration risk' despite having the right visas and letters!! Discrimination in action!! So it's made us even more fired up to get out voices heard! He will be with us on satruday too...so next week well have a full team!

A few more days training and then well be unleashed on the Human Rights Council!




-- Post From My iPhone

In training

Barker and Jade explaining how the human rights council works.





Celine in deep discussions.





Barker,Jade&Ibata demonstrating their experiances.

Location:La Cenacle

First vist to the UN

Great day, after a briefing this morning we all went down to the UN and got our passes "All sorted now". Our training continues tomorrow with DCI.


- Youth Justice in Action young campaigners

Barker,Jade,Ibata

Good luck guy's x


- Youth Justice in Action young campaigners

Location:Geneva

Here we go again

Well, we are off again.

In March 2009, five young people with experience of youth justice systems went to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva to lobby decision makers. They were able to influence an important UN Resolution on youth justice which made urgent recommendations to all governments around the world. You can read all about their story in this blog below or watch this great video



In 2010 another group of young people are returning to the UN to report back on how well their governments are doing on meeting this resolution. They have campaigned on the resolution in their own countries and have produced research. This research will help them to persuade government representatives that more needs to be done to make youth justice a reality for young people everywhere.

Follow our story here!

Until next year.....

This blog is now a living record of what was achieved at the UN Human Rights Council in March 2009. There is still lots more going on around the world as part of the Youth Justice in Action campaign. Visit youthjusticeinaction.org/updates

Our time in Geneva

Siding with Young People

This afternoon Dani, Thandanani and Martin have been presenting their stories to a side event organised by Y Care International, the World Alliance of YMCAs and Defence for Children International.

All three of them were fantastic and I hope to get them to blog about what it was like to share their experiences with delegates and representatives of governments and organisations worldwide. In the meantime, here's some pics...

Thandanani in action

Here is Thandanani meeting the South African government!


Post From My iPhone

Web Chatting

A big thank you to all of you who tuned in, logged on and typed out last night - the group loved talking to you all, answering your questions and sharing what they've done with you!

It would be really great if you could post even just a small comment on the blog about what you talked about last night - what did you ask, what did you learn, what did you think of what the young people have been doing?

What do we want? Justice!

A quick update after our stunt outside the UN by "the chair" this morning!

Check out the group with the cards that YOU signed with your messages of support...

What is a team?

This has been a question that has been asked several times over the past two weeks. I have been given a number of answers, but in their own way the group have worked together to answer this.
I have watched a group of young people who have come together from different parts of the world to live and work together, share stories, enthusiasm, ideas, tears and also a lot of laughter..
This group have accomplished over a 'few' days what sometimes can take a group a number of weeks to achieve. There have been moments when it seemed a wall had came up against us but determination and sometimes pain, brought those barriers down.
We have a team of young people to be proud of, a bunch who genuinely have a passion for youth justice issues which have affected them, their peers and young people worldwide.
A team which i have come to the point of saying - I am proud of what you all have achieved so far and i think you have grasped what team work is really all about..Well done!!!

Sharyn

LIVE CHAT - Wednesday 18 March - 7pm GMT (8pm Swiss time)

Just a reminder that tomorrow we will be hosting a live chat in the chatroom available by clicking the link to the right!

So far we have young people from Scotland, England and Ireland all on board to ask the young Genevan delegation exactly what the past week has been like.

Please, please, please watch and read the interventions that OB and Darwin have made, come up with any questions you might want to ask and take this opportunity to share what youth justice means to you!

Speak to you all tomorrow and Genevan "gang" - see you at the UN at lunchtime :)

Peace,

Mike

Here's Darwin!! Live at the UN...for one afternoon only

Here it is! Dariwns oral intervention to the Human Rights Council.

That's two times our voice has been heard directly by the whole council!!

(See the comments for the english translation)



You'll notice us all sitting in front of him! :-)

Wicked words from Ian

Hi ya

This is what the boss of YMCA England just wrote to us!

Thanks for your message Ian it means a lot - we;re going to carry on

Dani
---------

"A hearty congratulations to all 5 delegates in the Youth Justice in Action campaign for all their hard work out in Geneva!

You’ve taken the needs of the young people in each of your countries to the highest international court, and you’ve told their stories.

Thank you for being brave and speaking on behalf of many other young people whose voices so often go unheard.

Here in England, we are working to help all young people avoid crime, as well as working to rehabilitate those young people who are currently caught in the criminal justice system.

We are going to take your charge to the UN, back to the young people who are involved in YMCAs all over this country, and work with them to make this country a place for all young people to belong, contribute and thrive.

Thank you on behalf of the YMCAs in England.

Sincerely,

Ian Green
National Secretary of YMCA England"

A thumbs up from the President himself!

OB has just had a talk with the President of the Human Rights Council!

He told him we were a group of young people here to advocate about our own experiences of youth justice. He remembered our Oral Intervention last week. He said it was good work done and he was really impressed with what we were doing as a group of young people.

So we've even been noticed right at the top!!!

Using your cards.....

Here's some pics of us working away with the thousands of action cards filled in by young people from all over the world.






OB says "we feel very much grateful to use these cards" Thandanani says "it gives us strength to know we have support, it's not just about us but the support we have from people who know about the campaign"

Experiencia de un Discurso en la ONU

Hoy, ha sido un gran dia para el equipo de Justicia Juvenil y de la ALianza MUndial de YMCAs.
Se ha podido intervenir por segunda ocasion en la Asamblea del Consejo de Derechos Humanos, intervinicendo por la JUSTICIA JUVENIL.

Particularmente, deseo conpartir esta maravillosa experiencia de dirigirse a un publico tan selecto y relevante, como el que esta congregregado en la ONU.

Antes del discurso, mis compañeros estaban ansiosos por mi presentacion y han sido muy solIdaridad al acompañarme y demostrarme su afecto. Todos estaban al pendiente de mi. Eso me ha puesto nervioso, pero he estado muy bien de mis emociones y poder dirigirme a la concurrencia.

Llego la hora del discurso, me dirijo al Señor Presidente, un discurso sencillo, pero que ha sido elaborado siendo consciente de lo que se proclama.

Lo mas emocionante para mi, fue al final de mi Declaracion.
Recibir los elogios (felicitaciones) de mis compañeros me ha sido muestra que lo "hemos hecho bien" (Digo hemos porque represento una comunidad, un movimiento, un grupo, una alianza). Pero, lo que me ha conmovido es ver al final de la fila a Clarissa Balan. Ella me ha conmovido, que ha provocado callar por un momento y hacer un nudo en mi garganta.
Muy de prisa llego para presenciar mi declaratoria. Su rostro transmitia lo que estaba sintiendo. De pronto unas lagrimas daban mejor aspecto a sus ojos; le pregunte, ¿Que pasa? y me ha respondido "..siento una emocion de estar aqui y poder escuchar su declaracion".
Es un momento y son palabras que no olvidare el resto de mi vida.
Clarissa ha hecho ver reflejada mi familia cerca mio. Y digo mi familia, porque son ellos quienes precisamente comparten contigo tus buenos y malos momentos. Clarissa ha estado aqui, junto a mi. Un abrazo no ha sido suficiente, verle a sus ojos me conmocionan. (su humildad y calidad de persona se observa a simple vista, ella es tan agradable y accesible que sientes mucha confianza compartir con ella). y es con esos pequeños detalles que marcamos la s vidas y hacemos diferencias.
Pero, no solo hablo de mi familia parental, sino de la GRAN FAMILIA de la YMCAs, esa familia que en unidad de Espiritu, de alma y en solo cuerpo compartimos como buenos hermanos.

En nosotros no tiene cabida el racismo, color, lengua, religion u otra "diferencia". SOMOS UNO.

Gracias a mis guias y compañeros, porque a cada momento han estado demostrandome su apoyo y dandome fuerzas para no estar nervioso. Celine y Matt con las pruebas de pronunciacion del discurso (y por toda la atencion previo a tomar microfono y poderme dirigir al publico), "mama Sharin", Martin, Daniela, OB y Thandanani muy atentos y emocionados han estado de cerca para decir "bien hecho".

Falta mucho por realizar. Nuestro trabajo de abogacia no termina aqui. El tiempo que nos resta para incidir, lo aprovecharemos al maximo. Todas nuestras actividades estaran caragadas de nuestro entusiasmo, compromiso, esfuerzo, entrega y responsabilidad.
AL regresar, cada quien, a nuestros paises seguiremos sosteniendo el lienzo o el pincel del compromiso para seguir pintando un color de esperanza en los oprimidos y desposeidos. Seguiremos abogando por los excluidos y maltratados, por quienes se les violentan sus derechos. Seguiremos con el compromiso de unir esfuerzos, de continuar enarbolando la bandera de lucha. Y seguro estoy que la Campaña de Justicia Juvenil en Accion sera una de las que dejara grandes campañas que marcara la diferencia, como hasta hoy lo ha sabido hacer.

Bendiciones.
_______________________________

Traslate to English

Ready and waiting

Here is the Human Rights Council empty whilst they're all off for lunch.



After lunch it is going to be rocked by Darwin, as he gives our 2nd oral intervention about youth justice issues in central america! Awesome! Keep watching to see it!

-- Post From My iPhone

how it makes me feel

this week has been so good.. im so glad the u.n got a taste of young people in action..
iv learnt so much and im so looking foward to next thursday at the side event to give all our speeches and everyone talking to the ngo's about our lives and how they've been affected by the juvenille justice.. making it happen.. so hopefully over time, the way children and young people are treated will stop!!!
daniella

Meeting the Austrians

We have had our discussion with a delegate from the Austrian government Eva Schofer about the Austrian's resolution. We highlighted for Eva some the key elements that we would like as a group for her to reinforce, the main feature being "Rehabilitation and Reintegration". We spoke with her about our personal experiences to give her a clear and concise view about what we hope we could get out of the Austrian's resolution as well.

We also were told that we need to do some work to give the resolution more credibility and that if we can get more co-sponsors that it can have a greater impact overall. Eva informed us about the real key aspects of the resolution, the main element for us being "Education" this incorporates rehabilitation and reintegration.

Eva thanked us and said "that even for us it is really good to meet up with a group like this, because for us it can seem very endless and without a cause". We then finalised the meeting by asking a few personal questions and then thanked her for giving us the time to have our say in the resolution.

Martin

(Me, writing this post - thanks to matts iphone!!)

Live at the UN

This is our oral statement at the UN!! OB is reading it to the whole council the statement we all wrote.

We wrote it for the debate on the implementation on the rights of the child and it is about how countries are failing to uphold the rights of under-18s through the way they treat children and young people in the justice system

Proud to be young....

Today we had an early start at the UN. We sat in the Council and waited until OB gave our speech. He done a brilliant job, he spoke clearly and strongly about us young people and a lot of people were interested at the fact us young people gave a statement. OB and myself had an interview with a lady from the Inter-Agency Panel on Juvenille Justice, who wanted to know what i had been involved in before this campaign. I told her i've been involved in the Youth Justice video with other members of the YMCA.

Everyday i'm learning more and more and im really excited to see what's coming next!!

Dani (UK)

YMCA World Alliance picks up the News...

Check out this article at the YMCA World Alliance website (www.ymca.int) - Click here

Inside you'll find a full transcript of OB's speech at the UN this morning!

I've converted the file into an .avi movie now so that those without Real Media can watch it! Members of the Youth Workers Network should visit the filecabinet (yciyouthworkersnetwork.org/filecabinet) to download it from the YJIA folder!

Otherwise drop me an email at youthworkersnetwork@ycareinternational.org and I'll send you a copy!

Mike

Addressing the Human Rights Council!!!

Yes!! Say no more....

Click here to see OB reading the statement we wrote to the whole Human Rights Council.

If that doesn't work, click here and scroll down to find the World Alliances of YMCAs statement in the Panel on National Implementation and Monitoring 'Annual full-day meeting on the rights of the child' section

You will need to view it through real player which if you don't have, click here to download

LIVE CHAT - Wednesday 18 March - 7pm GMT (8pm Swiss time)

Hello all,

Just a quick announcement that we will be hosting a live chat from Geneva through the link on the right hand side on Wednesday 18 March!

Log on at 7pm GMT (8pm Swiss time, see the "solidarity" clocks at the bottom of the blog for your local time information) to speak to the participants, share your thoughts and get involved in the campaign!

The chat room is also available here! http://www.chatmaker.net/chatap/rooms/YJIA/

In the meantime, don't forget to add your thoughts either by commenting on a post below, leaving a message in the live chat area or, if you want to be able to post, send your email address to mike.odonovan@ycareinternational.org

Coming up soon... a link to OB from Sierra Leone talking at the UN! Go OB!

Best wishes to all in Geneva - keep up the excellent work!

Mike (Y Care International, London)

Waiting for lift off

Just writing from the council hall for OB to make our oral intervention in the debate on the rights of the child. Looks like it's running late so we'll be back tomorrow morning! All really excited about what he's going to say!!

What d'you think? Que penses-tu ? ¿Qué piensas tú?

Even if it's something small, what is the single most important change or improvement that you think the UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Council) must make in order to genuinely address the problem of unfair youth treatment in your country ?
=
Même s’il est quelque chose de petit, quel est, dans ton opinion, le changement le plus important que le Conseil des Droits de l’Homme à l’ONU doit faire s’il veut vraiment aborder le problème du traitement injuste des jeunes dans ton pays ?
=
Aún si es algo pequeño, ¿qué consideras como el cambio el más importante que el Consejo de los Derechos Humanos a la ONU debe efectuar si de verdad quiere abordar el problema del tratamiento injusto de los jóvenes en tu país ?

On fire.....

Today we went to the DCI (Defence for Children International) office and met Julia Aloisio. She was fantastic and so helpful. We role played and it was so inspiring. I can't wait to get in there at the UN. We did visit the UN today but as it was our first time there, the best thing was to watch a discussion. The discussion was based on the right to food.

Watching the Reps discussing the problems, i was so "into it" that i felt i wanted to say something. It inspired me watching and listening to them. I hope i will have a chance to talk to the President of the Council. To have the opportunity of standing up for young people around the world and represent their stories to get justice, i know 'I'LL BE ON FIRE!!'

Daniella A (UK)

Jovenes por la justicia

He decidido dar este nombre al Blog, como simbolo que los y las jovenes cada dia anhelamos mejores formas de aplicacion de justicia, ya estamos cansados de la imagen negativa y estigmatizadora que nos han dado por mucho tiempo y ES HORA de decir ALTO y cambiar el rumbo del cumplimineto de nuestros Derechos.

A traves de la Campaña de Justicia Juvenil (YouthJusticeinAction) estamos siendo actores claves para generar esos cambios. En respeto y armonia anhelamos construir los ideales que cimenten un mejor futuro: futuro que se le ha negado a muchos jovenes.-

Confiamos dar lo mejor de nuestro esfuerzo en esta campaña y que el Consejo de Derechos de la ONU pueda escucharnos y actuar para mejorar los Sistemas de justicia.

Finalmente, esperamos SU INTERVENCION, pues su opinion enrriquecera este trabajo, que en una comunidad global no podemos hacer caso omiso de algo que aumenta aceleradamente cada dia.

Arrivals, tiredness, excitement and a few dissapointments

There was loads of excitement and expectation as the group arrived from all corners of the world.

Thandanani had travelled for over 48 hours (a long story!), Darwin for over 18 hours, and OB for 17 hours....whilst Daniella and Martin were more full of energy after their short flights from just down the road!

The sad news is the Makilawe from Togo will not be with us. The Swiss Embassy in Accra decided that he wasn't allowed a visa. They said this was because they did not believe he would return after the programme. Matt had several heated conversations with them, as they tried to justify not letting him...the fact he had not travelled before, has been in prison and has no job were used as excuses, but it is just another example of how young people are judged and stereotyped.

Still....we've taken it on the chin and will do all we can to involve him in the campaigns fro Togo...we won't let his story and voice go unheard.

Our 4 days of training are now in full swing, with guest speakers from Human Rights Watch and DCI coming over the next few days, and on Monday we go to the UN for the first time!!

Welcome to Youth Justice in Action @ the UN

Hello everyone!

Thanks for signing up to the blog - we're really looking forward to the discussions that we can generate on the site while the young people go the UN to CUFF THE COUNCIL!

In the very near future Celine will be posting some more information about the campaign and what's going on at the UN. In the meantime, don't forget to get your young people to hit www.youthjusticeinaction.org.

Alternatively, check out the live chat room feature by clicking the YJIA logo on the at the top right hand side of the blog! Happy chatting!

If you need anything translated, check out the great translation tool at the bottom of the site!

Please come back in the run up to March to check out what's going on in Geneva!