Mapo-gu Establishes Children's Council and Youth Council

Mapo-gu to Hold Ceremony for Children's and Youth Participation Ordinance No. 1 on the 15th... Aiming to Operate a Public Forum to Promote Children's Policy Participation, Joint Research with Seoul Institute

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Mapo-gu (Mayor Yudonggyun) plans to activate policy participation of children and adolescents this year by establishing permanent Children’s Council and Youth Council and operating online and offline public forums.

The development of the ‘Children and Youth Council’ model is a follow-up study linked to the child-friendly school model research conducted in 2019 by the Mapo 1st Street Research Team of the district government research team, and was jointly conducted with the Seoul Institute.

The research was conducted over a total of 10 months from March to December 2020. On the 15th, the district held a bill delivery ceremony and handed over the ordinance (draft) for the establishment of online and offline Children’s Council and Youth Council to Choi Eunha, Chairperson of the Mapo-gu Council Operations Committee.

The district conducted an online survey targeting children and adolescents with policy participation experience in the region and compiled interviews with participants into the ordinance draft.

The online survey was conducted targeting various children and adolescents including elementary, middle, and high school students in the region, out-of-school youth, and students of Hanguk Woojin School (special school), investigating motivations for participating in district policies and the desired form of the Children and Youth Council.

In addition, after broadly analyzing the composition and operation status of existing Children and Youth Councils in 11 autonomous districts of Seoul, as well as youth policy participation cases in Germany and Finland, the research underwent review by legal experts and child rights experts involved in the study to establish a model and operational system based on children’s rights.

The district proposed in the ordinance (draft) ▲to strengthen the representativeness and diversity of the Children and Youth Council by dividing each school into electoral districts and electing student representatives by vote ▲to select regional representatives based on administrative dong considering regional balance ▲to separately select proportional representatives to protect the participation rights of children and adolescents who are easily marginalized and have difficulty participating in the council by voting, such as students from single-parent families, multicultural families, students with disabilities, and out-of-school youth.

Choi Eunha, Chairperson of the Operations Committee who participated in the research, said, “Through the research process, we listened to the opinions of children, adolescents, and various district council members, and based on this, we will provide the best support from the enactment of the ordinance to the smooth operation for the establishment of the Children and Youth Council based on children’s rights.”

Yudonggyun, Mayor of Mapo-gu, said, “This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Republic of Korea’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, making the establishment of permanent Children and Youth Councils a meaningful first step to guarantee children’s participation rights. To this end, Mapo-gu will also strive for the establishment and operation of the Children and Youth Council.”