“We have to ask them: Where the hell are you?” charged Janet Jobson, a youth delegate from South Africa.

“Why don’t we all go out and just grab them and force them into dialogue?” said Susan Mwape of Zambia, lurching from her chair ready to lead the revolt.

Youth expressed disappointment and anger at yesterday’s mini plenary on “Youth Challenging Today’s Leaders for the Sake of Tomorrow”. They felt ready to challenge, but few were there to take them up.

David Woollcombe, president of Peace Child International and one of the few ‘elders’ in the room, did his best. “What challenge? You have leaders conducting illegal wars, illegal occupations of countries. Where is the youth challenge?” he questioned.

“And why should we take any interest in you? We have experience of parenting, we have experience of leadership, we know more than you do. Why should we take an interest in your opinion?” he asked provocatively.

Because “we believe that young people are the only game in town. If I was running any development agency, I would spend every cent on young people. Because you deliver,” said Woollcombe, answering his own question.

He also offered some tips on how young people can improve their skills to further their aims.

“Young people are not very good at reporting, monitoring,” he said. “You need to be more professional about your work.”

Marina Mansilla, a 24-year-old from Argentina, agreed. “We need to understand your jargon. I mean look at the title of this panel. How cheesy!”

While strengthening their lobbying skills, the participants of the two-day Youth Assembly that ran parallel to the World Assembly gathering more than 100 youths from over 60 countries, already had a few requests lined up.

The Youth Assembly next year should not be separate from the World Assembly, they said, but should be rather in the form of a “crash course” for the youth to learn the skills and issues to fully participate in the debates with the “adults.”

Of the actual assembly, 30 percent of the participants should be young people. Furthermore, the perspective of young people should be taken into consideration in the CIVICUS agenda and the needs of young people should be taken into account by organizers.

“Just as any marginalized people, we have particular needs,” stressed Mansilla. The tone rose in the room when the youth delegates complained that their recommendations had no place at Sunday’s final plenary which aims to wrap up the world assembly.

“We are not just asking, we are demanding,” cried May-I Fabros from the Philippines. “We are not begging, we are demanding!”

Kumi Naidoo, secretary general of CIVICUS, was there to reassure the crowd. He first offered a welcome apology for the lack of adults, stressing that a problem in scheduling had forced organisers to put the youth panel and the panel on children’s rights simultaneously.

He also told the youth delegates that their recommendations would be included in the final summary of the conference.

“This is a legitimate part of the summary,” Naidoo said.

Woollcombe was less accommodating: “You say you wished more adults were here, I’m actually glad they weren’t. I don’t think you had very much to say,” he charged.

“We are sitting here on a planet that is slowly frying itself, that is slowly melting its icecaps. It’s not my generation that is going to have to suffer from that, it’s your generation and your children. I hear nothing about climate change this morning,” Woollcoombe said. “I want to hear what you have to say, not how you want to say it.”

The youth did agree to nine points they feel are crucial issues that need to be addressed: intolerance and discrimination; education; ecologi