Adolescent health, youth participation, and Taksim square

Abstract

The 10th World Congress of the International Association for Adolescent Health, held in conjunction with the 49th Congress of the Turkish Pediatric Association in Istanbul on June 11–13, was a conference with a difference. The presentations on wellbeing of adolescents in vulnerable environments, and on introducing the voice of young people into the policy debates that affect their health, became eerily all the more relevant when riot police first moved into Istanbul's Taksim square on Tuesday, June 11, a mere 10 minutes walk from the conference venue. The planned combined opening ceremony had to be cancelled to allow safe return to their accommodation for participants. Many of the youth representatives—largely Turkish medical students—joined the demonstrators at Taksim square in the evenings after attending the conference.Rima Afifi, Professor and Associate Dean at the Department of Health Promotion and Community Health at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon, argued powerfully in her plenary talk for a world that encourages youth participation in politics and decision making, sees young people as a promise rather than a threat, and gives young people a voice that is listened to. In reality, adolescents are all too often ignored or insufficiently acknowledged, or are only seen as members of a group that is vilified and feared. There was probably no one in the audience who did not think about the young people in the square around the corner while she was talking.Far from being hooligans or troublemakers as the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would have it, Turkey's demonstrators are young, educated people who want their voices heard. To respond with riot police, teargas, rubber bullets, pepper spray, and forced eviction is a deeply disturbing and deplorable move in a country that has so much to be proud of. To engage with and listen to our young people is something we need to actively pursue in all countries. Change for the better and human progress depends on societies that allow young people not only to participate but also to have the opportunity and confidence to be change agents themselves. The 10th World Congress of the International Association for Adolescent Health, held in conjunction with the 49th Congress of the Turkish Pediatric Association in Istanbul on June 11–13, was a conference with a difference. The presentations on wellbeing of adolescents in vulnerable environments, and on introducing the voice of young people into the policy debates that affect their health, became eerily all the more relevant when riot police first moved into Istanbul's Taksim square on Tuesday, June 11, a mere 10 minutes walk from the conference venue. The planned combined opening ceremony had to be cancelled to allow safe return to their accommodation for participants. Many of the youth representatives—largely Turkish medical students—joined the demonstrators at Taksim square in the evenings after attending the conference. Rima Afifi, Professor and Associate Dean at the Department of Health Promotion and Community Health at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon, argued powerfully in her plenary talk for a world that encourages youth participation in politics and decision making, sees young people as a promise rather than a threat, and gives young people a voice that is listened to. In reality, adolescents are all too often ignored or insufficiently acknowledged, or are only seen as members of a group that is vilified and feared. There was probably no one in the audience who did not think about the young people in the square around the corner while she was talking. Far from being hooligans or troublemakers as the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would have it, Turkey's demonstrators are young, educated people who want their voices heard. To respond with riot police, teargas, rubber bullets, pepper spray, and forced eviction is a deeply disturbing and deplorable move in a country that has so much to be proud of. To engage with and listen to our young people is something we need to actively pursue in all countries. Change for the better and human progress depends on societies that allow young people not only to participate but also to have the opportunity and confidence to be change agents themselves.