Green Party Platform:
Youth Rights
All human beings have the right to a life that will let them achieve their full potential. Young people are one of the least protected classes of human beings, yet they represent our future. We must ensure they have an upbringing that allows them to take their place as functioning, productive and self-actualized members of their community.
The Green Party supports the rights of youth:
- Recognize that young people have the inalienable right of independent existence. Youth are not the property of their parents or guardians, but are under their care and guidance.
- Recognize that youth have the right to survival through the provision of adequate food, shelter and comprehensive health care, including prenatal care for the mother.
- Recognize that youth have the right to be protected from abuse, harmful drugs, violence, environmental hazards, neglect and exploitation.
- Recognize that youth have the right to develop in a safe and nurturing early environment provided by affordable child care and pre-school preparation.
- Recognize that youth have the right to an education that is stimulating, relevant, engaging and that fosters their natural desire to learn.
- Encourage the creative potential of young people to the greatest extent possible.
- Allow young people to have input into the direction and pace of their own education, including input into the operation of their educational institutions.
- Provide young people, at the earliest time appropriate, with education regarding their own sexuality.
- Give young people the opportunity to express themselves in their own media, including television, radio, films and the Internet. Young people should also be given skills in analyzing commercial media.
- Keep young people as free as possible from coercive corporate advertising at their educational institutions.
- Recognized the importance of parents, teachers and other allies of young people. Ample support must be provided for their work.