Violence and Youth My name is Marcones. I am a member of the Community Youth Group and I am going to talk about violence and the creation of the Municipal Youth Council. Impoverished youth today are living in a situation of extreme violence. They are denied their civil rights and many of them are discriminated against on account of the district in which they live and of the colour of their skin. They are called the PPPs (poor, black (preto) and from the periphery). This is the profile of the youth who are living in the country today and make up the majority of those who are imprisoned.

Due to this alarming situation, young people from our city have organised themselves to make an effort to create a municipal youth council and have been struggling for the implementation of public policies, such as schools, recreational facilities, public transport and healthcare. This is a way for us to guarantee a minimum of civil rights for our youth who have been suffering so much from neglect and violence. The Council is a way of our struggling for the implementation of these policies for our city. We youth have gone onto the streets to demand our rights. After various frustrating sessions in the Chamber of Deputies, the Council was created. It is now up to us young people not to get disheartened and to continue our efforts for public policies that will provide dignity and a reasonable standard of living for our youth.