Youth Council
The youth community council or youth city council is a democratically legitimized, non-partisan body at the municipal level that represents the interests of the youth in the city or municipality vis-à-vis the ( mayor ) , the municipal council and the city administration . Young people between the ages of 14 and 18 usually have passive and active voting rights . Youth councils are a form of youth participation that is widespread, especially in Baden-Württemberg , and is characterized by continuity and commitment compared to other forms of participation.
The state government of Baden-Württemberg stated in a response to a request from the parliamentary group of the Greens in the state parliament on the role of youth community councils:
“Youth councils are well suited to bring the needs of young people into local politics. The youth are formally represented in their community through youth councils. As contact persons, they offer the opportunity to convey wishes, suggestions and suggestions for improvement from young people to politics. In this way, all young people can participate in the community. In this respect, youth community councils offer all young people the opportunity to participate in local political decision-making and are of important importance for society as a whole. Youth councils are democratically elected directly by the young people and thus also represent different age groups and types of school. Young people can be included in the communities in planning and projects that affect their interests in an appropriate manner. The elected young people get a deeper insight into local politics and learn to take responsibility and to represent their positions in public. As youth community councils, young people can gain real experience of participation as well as participate in the political framework. This provides young people with a reliable basis for developing democratic orientations and competencies and they learn to act responsibly. "
Youth community councils in Baden-Württemberg
history
The first youth council in Germany was founded in 1985 in Weingarten . The first youth council in primary elections was elected in 1987 in Filderstadt . Models were the French “conseils des jeunes” and the youth parliament in Waremme, Belgium . In the years that followed, youth councils were set up in numerous other cities in the southwest. This wave of new foundations culminated in the founding of the umbrella association of youth community councils in Baden-Württemberg in 1993, whose goals, according to the statutes, are to represent the community bodies at the state level, to help cities and communities in setting up additional youth community councils and to organize the exchange of experiences between the youth parliaments . The umbrella organization of youth community councils has also initiated national political campaigns since it was founded, including on transport and education policy. The establishment of the umbrella organization has led to a rapid increase in the number of youth councils in Baden-Württemberg since the 1990s. In 2005, 89 of the 1110 municipalities had such committees.
Electoral systems
The general conditions for the establishment of the youth council are determined by the council of the municipality. In the majority of cities and municipalities, the members of the youth council are elected for two years. As a rule, the active and passive right to vote applies to all young people between the ages of 14 and 18 who are resident in the municipality; Young people without a German passport are also entitled to vote. A distinction is made between several options. The most common model is primary voting, in which all young people in the community are called to vote. School elections are less common in which only pupils are entitled to vote. In some cases, the number of youth council members per school is quoted in advance. A delegate principle, according to which schools, clubs and other institutions send representatives to the youth council, is hardly practiced due to the democratic deficit.
Political work
Similar to the municipal council, the youth council also meets regularly. Either a member of the committee or the (lord) mayor takes the chair. On the agenda are mostly topics that emerge from initiatives from the center of the youth council, as well as items that are brought to the youth council by the council or the city administration for advice. The youth community council has an advisory function in youth matters, but no binding decision-making authority. In almost all municipalities, the formal involvement of the youth council is stipulated in its statutes , and in most cases the young people are given the right to speak and make applications to the council.
Legal basis
The establishment of a youth council is not mandatory. In the Baden-Württemberg municipal code, however, the youth council is explicitly intended as a participation model:
§41a participation of children and young people
(1) The community should involve children and young people in an appropriate manner in planning and projects that affect their interests. Appropriate participation procedures are to be developed for this purpose by the municipality. In particular, the municipality can set up a youth council or another youth representative body. The members of the youth council work on a voluntary basis.
(2) Young people can apply for a youth council to be set up. The application must be submitted in municipalities with up to 20,000 inhabitants out of 20, in municipalities with up to 50,000 inhabitants out of 50, in municipalities with up to 200,000 inhabitants out of 150, in municipalities with over 200,000 inhabitants out of 250 young people living in the municipality be signed.
The municipal council has to decide on the establishment of the youth representation within three months after receipt of the application; he has to hear representatives of the young people.
(3) The rules of procedure shall regulate the participation of members of the youth council in the meetings of the municipal council in matters of youth; in particular, a right to speak, a right to be heard and a right to submit proposals are to be provided.
(4) Adequate financial resources are to be made available to the youth representatives. The municipal council decides on the scope within the budget. Evidence of the use of the funds must be provided in a simple form.
In the Rhineland-Palatinate municipal code, so-called youth representation is regulated in Section 56 b GemO and partially in Section 56 a GemO .
subjects
In terms of content, the youth community councils deal with all facets of community life, insofar as it affects young people's interests. These include the improvement of youth, sports and leisure facilities, local public transport , the cycle path situation, the equipment of local schools and public facilities such as B. the city library as well as violence and addiction prevention. In addition to the actual committee work, youth community councils also regularly use their hinge function between young people and the city administration to point out topics with their own events or to compensate for deficits in the range of local events. In most cases, the youth council has its own budget that is available for actions and campaigns.
Youth councils in other federal states
Following the Baden-Württemberg model, youth councils or comparable bodies have now been set up in numerous cities and municipalities in other federal states. However, their number is far lower than in the southwest. In Baden-Württemberg there is an umbrella organization in which the individual youth representatives can participate. There is also a nationwide representation in Bavaria . The Rhineland-Palatinate umbrella organization dissolved itself by a unanimous resolution by the umbrella association meeting on September 8, 2012 in Langenlonsheim due to the fact that such formal structures were not necessary. There is no umbrella organization at the federal level.
Section 56b of the Rhineland-Palatinate municipal code allows all municipalities to set up youth representatives. The names are very different (youth parliament, youth community council, youth forum, etc.). The umbrella association of youth community councils in Rhineland-Palatinate was founded on January 17, 2010 and is an association of youth representatives from Rhineland-Palatinate (currently Bernkastel-Kues, Morbach, Pluwig, Kaiserslautern and Haßloch).
In Schleswig-Holstein , in recent years, more and more youth representatives that come close to the Baden-Württemberg concept have been set up, as Article 47f of the municipal code requires the appropriate participation of young people. The oldest active youth council in Schleswig-Holstein is the Elmshorn Child and Youth Council , which has been working since 1994.
Youth councils in other European countries
In the 1970s, the first youth parliaments were founded in Waremme , Belgium and Schiltigheim, France . Others followed in France, Austria , Poland , England, Lithuania, Italy , Norway , Belgium, Finland , Denmark , Switzerland and the Netherlands. There are elected local youth representatives in varying degrees of density. There have been several attempts to found a common European umbrella organization, which, however, does not exist to this day.
Web links
- Umbrella organization of the youth community councils in Baden-Württemberg
- Youth community councils in Baden-Württemberg
- Youth councils in Baden-Württemberg and Finland
- DSJ, umbrella organization of the Swiss youth parliaments
literature
- Stromberg, Anja: "Youth community councils in Baden-Württemberg and Switzerland - illustrated by comparing the work of the umbrella organizations", diploma thesis, Kehl, 2005,
- Stange, Waldemar: “Participation of Children”, in “From Politics and Contemporary History” (aPuZ), No. 38, Berlin, 2010.
- City of Freiburg: “Participation Concept City of Freiburg”, City Council printed matter G-06/115, Freiburg im Breisgau, Annex 2.
- Service point for youth participation: “Youth parliaments (or similar) in Germany”, Berlin, 2002.
- Müller, Yvonne: “Study in the Southwest State Legal Possibilities for Participation of Young People According to Municipal Code” in “Project Work” 2/2002, Sersheim.
- Meinhold-Henschel, Sigrid; Schack, Stephan: “Child and Youth Participation in Germany - Development Status and Approaches to Action” in “Youth Welfare and Schools Handbook for Successful Cooperation”, Wiesbaden, 2008 DOI: 10.1007 / 978-3-531-90820-5
- Metzger, Renate: "Political participation of girls and young women in the youth community councils of Baden-Württemberg - an empirical survey", diploma thesis, University of Applied Sciences Esslingen, Esslingen 1996.
- State Parliament of Baden-Württemberg: "Printed matter 14/6762 of July 28, 2010, response of the state government to the request" Consequences of the youth state parliament 2010 - strengthening youth community councils "of the Green parliamentary groups in the state parliament".
- Krieg, Susanne Eva: "Political participation by youth community councils in Baden-Württemberg". Diploma thesis, Stuttgart, 2007.
- Hermann, Michael Cornelius: “Youth community councils in Baden-Württemberg. An interdisciplinary evaluation ”. Doctoral thesis, Pfaffenweiler 1996.
- Berger, Gundel: “Legal regulations for the participation of children and young people in municipal areas”, DJI working paper No. 6 - 151, Munich, 1998.
- Ade, Klaus: “Participation of young people in local events”, Practice of the local government, Baden-Württemberg, Volume 2, page 195, 2006.