Voices.

• Position: United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children

Five young writers explain their concerns and hopes for the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children

The Special Session is geared towards ensuring that we, the youth of the world, have a brighter future. Why then have so many of the youth in attendance at the three Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) meetings been left asking themselves, "If we are so important in this process, then why have we been so excluded from it?"

Youth around the world are the primary concern of the Special Session. The purpose of the Outcome Document is to outline the best possible life circumstances for all children around the world, The Special Session focuses on improving a healthy start to our lives and on ensuring a good basic education for all children.

At the third PrepCom, children led caucuses, spoke at many conferences, and even presented changes to the plenary sessions. But although young people were grateful for the opportunity to voice their views and to participate in the PrepCom, we were worried as to whether we were taken seriously. Was the idea to involve us just a masquerade to enhance, in the minds of the adults, the idea of children's rights? Granted, youth participation has increased throughout the past three PrepComs, but it still hasn't reached the level of involvement which it ought to have. Adults may be knowledgeable about the issues addressed in the Outcome Document, but they do not have a clear understanding about them on our day-to-day level. Hopefully, the Governments attending the Special Session will take with them what they should have learned at the past PrepComs: that youth must be equally included in every step of the process.

Without our support, the Outcome Document and the Special Session will restructure the lives of youth around the world from the perspective of adults, not from the perspective of the young people whom it will directly affect.

Nazli Kfoury, 15 (New York City, United States), is a young journalist for Children's Express in New York. She covered the third PrepCom for the Non-governmental Organization Committee on UNICEF newsletter, On the Record.

If you take the time to review the third Preparatory Committee meeting for the Special Session on Children, you will see that practically nothing was accomplished. Based on what I witnessed at this PrepCom, I had the feeling that Governments forgot the task at hand and decided to play around with words. Throughout the week, I was irritated by this...