Minister O’Gorman addresses the Child and Youth Participation for Europe conference
From Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
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From Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Published on
Last updated on
On Monday 23 May, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, gave a keynote address to open the Child and Youth Participation for Europe conference at University College Cork. Organised by the Council of Europe/EU Joint ChildParticipation4Europe project alongside Hub na nÓg and with the input of young people themselves, the conference was the first event held as part of Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of Europe, which began on 20 May and will run until mid-November. A key theme of Ireland’s Presidency is ‘Hear Our Voices’ – Promoting participatory democracy and youth engagement in the 21st century’.
Over the past 3 days, delegates heard from a variety of experts and leaders in the field of child and youth participation in decision-making at University College Cork and the Metropole Hotel. Discussions took place on themes including ‘The importance of child participation for our democracies/societies’, ‘Bringing children and young people into adult spaces and youth led participation’ and ‘Including Babies, Toddlers and Children under the age of 5 in Decision-Making’, amongst others.
Young people from Irish organisations such as Comhairle na nÓg, the National Youth Assembly of Ireland, the Irish Secondary Students Union and the Young Voices EU Youth Dialogue programme were joined by their peers from across the CP4Europe project’s five partner countries – the Czech Republic, Finland, Iceland, Portugal and Slovenia.
Speaking on Monday, Minister O’Gorman said:
"The choosing of this theme for Ireland’s presidency underlines the joint commitment of Ireland and the Council of Europe to having a Europe where children and young people’s voices are not only heard, but given due prominence and real meaningful influence in decision-making structures at national and European level."