2018

At the 27th Youth Session in 2018, after intensive work, discussions with experts and exchanges with politicians, the young people were welcomed in the National Council Chamber on Saturday by the Ticino Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis - in Italian, of course. So he also commented on the linguistic minorities and emphasised in particular the culture of discussion: "Debating is democracy!", he repeated several times.

For the first time in the history of the Youth Session, the Prix Jeunesse was awarded to an organisation in recognition of its commitment to young people. Along with the other nominees "Milchjugend" and "Beraber", the CinéCivic project won the Youth Veto Bell. CinéCivic is a competition organised by the cantons of western Switzerland in which children and young people make films or design posters to promote political participation.

On Sunday, the debate and vote on the proposed demands were on the agenda: around 12 demands were discussed, 10 of them were adopted. In a petition for example, the participants demanded the support of a network to reduce the very high suicide rate among young LGBT+ people. The issue of waste was also discussed:  The participants adopted two demands in which they call on retailers to be more transparent about the use of packaging and to commit them to reduce the packaging of their own products by 15%.

Besides, the Youth Session adopted two petitions for more corporate transparency, especially for multinational companies. The participants of the Youth Session demanded the disclosure of business relations in the case of activities in risk areas and an evaluation system of companies according to social and ecological criteria. In this way, companies should be encouraged to a responsible management.