FRANCE

Ville Amie des Enfants
French National Committee for UNICEF

Launched by the French Mayors Association (Association des Maires de France - AMF) and by the French National Committee for UNICEF in 2002, the initiative "Ville amie des enfants" (Child-Friendly Cities) represents a network of more than 30 French cities of all sizes. All those communities have common goals: to become more friendly to children of all ages and to gain their close collaboration through child participation programmes; to promote international solidarity; and to foster the knowledge of the United Nations International Convention on the Rights of the Child. To achieve these goals, the Child-Friendly Cities (CFC) France network organizes meetings at which the city representatives share their experiences and develop new ideas they can implement locally. At the end of 2003, the French Child-Friendly Cities were: Aubagne, Blois, Boulazac, Bordeaux, Charleville-Mézières, Chateauroux, Cherbourg-Octeville, Colmar, Déols, l'Haÿ-les-Roses, Issy-les-Moulineaux, Joué-lès-Tours, Lens, Lille, Lorient, Metz, Mont-de-Marsan, Moulins, Mulhouse, Nancy, Nantes, Nevers, Niort, Paris, Le Raincy, Reims, Rennes, Rouen, Saintes, Saint-Etienne, Saint-Clair-de-la-Tour, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Toulouse, Versailles. More than 30 other cities are willing to join the programme in 2004. The following two events were recently organized by the French CFC project. November 2003, Paris: UNICEF France expounded its five priorities and inaugurated the French CFC programme in a special exhibition during the 86th AMF (French Mayors Association) national congress. 12 February 2004, Paris: The date of the first meeting of the CFC France programme at the French Mayors Association (AMF) headquarters in Paris; mayors, officials and UNICEF regional presidents organized the development of CFC France. At the end of the meeting, the "Ville amie des enfants" label was given to the 35 cities partaking in the French CFC programme.

Contact
Mélusine Harlé
Coordinator for Ville amie des enfants
French Committee for UNICEF
3, rue Duguay-Trouin
Telephone (33) 01 44397725
Fax (33) 01 44397786
E-mail mharle@unicef.fr

Download:
Ville amie des enfants (brochure 2003, p.1 PDF 1,20MB))
Ville amie des enfants (brochure 2003, p.2 PDF 1,02MB))
La lettre d'information (newsletter PDF 519KB))

Associations Nationale Des Conseils d'Enfants et de Jeunes (ANACEJ)
National Association of Children and Youth Councils
www.anacej.asso.fr/

Children and Youth Councils enable 9 to 18 year olds - and in some cases, young adults - to be actively involved in the everyday events of their town, county or region. They put forward ideas and suggestions and undertake activities to enhance the quality of life of inhabitants. Numbers have been steadily on the increase since the beginning of the 90's. In 1992, there were 400 councils, today there are more than 1000. The very first councils came into being in France in the 60's. ANACEJ, the National Association of Children and Youth Councils, groups together 460 "communes" and 4 local authorities which have elected to set up their own town. Local authorities (i.e. communes, county and regional councils) can organise their councils as they wish. They frequently refer to the experiences of other local authorities and the recommendations and advice of ANACEJ. On occasion, young people are directly involved in the creation of a council whilst local authorities organise elections or encourage volunteers to help put them in place.
The activities of youth councillors are as numerous as the issues are diverse. They launch awareness campaigns on the weight of school satchels, voting, tobacco, pollution, the European Union. They create cycle and rollerblade tracks. They organise demonstrations against violence.
Children and Youth Councils are empowered with an all important mission:

appropriate representation of young people throughout a given area;
sharing ideas on local life and society so as to improve world understanding;
the implementation of projects to improve everyday life;
consultation of young people on local authority projects.

Since its creation in 1991, ANACEJ, The National Association of Children and Youth Councils has encouraged the active participation of young people in neighbourhood issues and dialogue at local level with elected members. It confirms that councils are especially well adapted to enable young people to exercise those rights set out in the International Convention relating to Children's Right.
Its main objectives are:

to assist in the creation, running and evaluation of councils;
to set up a network enabling members to share and compare experiences thanks to a date base, to national and regional assemblies, to consultation and exchange workshops and to its Internet site;
the development and distribution of methodological and communications supports;
the training of council leaders;
research on the councils and young people's participation;

Contact
ANACEJ
105 rue Lafayette, 75010 Paris
Telephone 01 56 35 05 35
Fax 01 56 35 05 36
E-mail info@anacej.asso.fr