Establishing after school centers and youth parliaments
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Best practice - Participation
Sharjah Children Council was established in 1997 as the first ‘Children Parliament’ in the region and is composed of 80 children aged 10 to 14 with an equal number of boys and girls including children with disabilities. A dedicated Youth Parliament was established in 2005.
Sharjah has also hosted the Arab Children’s Parliament since 2019. Sharjah was the first emirate in the region to establish Children and Youth centers to provide children and adolescents with extracurricular activities after school.
First Children Center was established in 1985, first Youth centers (Nashea’a) for males was established in 2003 and (Sajaya) for females was established in 2012. A total of 26 children and youth centers are distributed throughout Sharjah Emirate. Sharjah’s child-friendly carnivals, organized by Sharjah Child Friendly Office (SCFO), are unique in that children themselves manage and conduct the events and activities. SCFO launched a ‘virtual campaign on children’s right to play’ during the Covid-19 pandemic through social media in March 2021. More than 48 girls and boys participated in designing a green public space in Sharjah using Minecraft technology in cooperation with UN Habitat.
At the 10th session of the World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi organized by UN Habitat, five youth represented Sharjah at the Youth Assembly which served as a space to share and report youth action and culture for sustainable urbanization. In addition, 20 children from Sharjah participated in a survey on the Rights of the Child’s General Comment No. 25 by UN Committee on children’s rights in the digital age. SCFO’s global creative competition on social media in connection with the 2020 World Children’s Day celebrations, focused on climate change as the central theme and drew huge participation from children and young adults.
