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News of the Institute and Lasallian Family
Rome, October 12, 2004
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 Voice of Youth conference: Students from across Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea recently participated in one of the most exciting events ever undertaken within our community.
From 26 - 30 July, the inaugural Voice of Youth conference was held at BoysTown, Beaudesert. For the first time, students from Lasallian schools in the District came together to discuss the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and what it means to them.
Released in 1989, the UN Convention aims to secure the welfare of young people across the globe. Taking into account the recommendations of the Convention, the General Chapter of the De La Salle Brothers in Rome made a commitment to consider children’s rights as a focus of their teaching throughout the world.
In our region, the Asia Pacific Lasallian Educators Convention made a commitment to the action plans of the General Chapter and has made Proposition 14 of that Chapter a regional priority. The Voice of Youth conference was devised as means of meeting this aim.
Each Lasallian school in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea was invited to send up to four youth delegates and an accompanying adult. Young people’s participation was crucial to the success of the conference.
Seventy Year 11 students from thirteen De La Salle Colleges, from three countries, met at the BoysTown property, Beaudesert. Two Lasallian Schools from Papua New Guinea attended, two from New Zealand, two from Melbourne, one from Adelaide, five from Sydney, and Queensland was represented by Southern Cross Catholic College, Scarborough. All were accompanied by a member of staff.
The importance of the Conference was marked by the presence of Br. Anton de Roeper, FSC, to represent the Brothers' General Council in Rome as an observer. Brother is involved in the De La Salle Brothers' affiliation with International Child Rights agencies based in Rome and Geneva. Specifically, the aims of the conference were as follows:
 To raise awareness among young people of breaches of children’s rights in their local environment;
To develop strategies in local communities to meet the needs of those young people whose rights may be breached;
To develop a “social justice” action plan to be implemented in local communities.
Before attending the conference, each group had to select one of the Articles from the Convention, research it in their school and locality, and prepare an Action Plan to address any anomalies that they found.
The first two days of the conference were spent presenting the results of the research and the plans to all the groups. The third day was spent in critiquing and refining their plans in light of the experience of all the delegates.
The fourth day was set aside to allow our overseas and interstate visitors to visit Brisbane City and see some of its attractions. The final day saw the conclusion of the Conference and the departure of the delegates.
Key groups who are active within our District presented strategies they have employed to address children’s rights and related social justice issues.
(Ms Rachel Minslow; Ms Kylie O'Mara and Mr Michael James, Campus Ministers, Southern Cross Catholic College, Queensland; and Mr. Terry Stuart) |
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