Legal age represents a major transition for 
young people who suddenly become citizens 
who are responsible for their actions in the 
eyes of society and the law. In order to make 
young people aware of, and prepare them for, 
this responsibility and officially celebrate 
this important stage, each year the City 
Council of Geneva, in collaboration with the 
Association of Municipalities of the Canton, 
organises a ceremony addressed to all the 
young people who are about to turn 18 years 
of age. 
Geneva, capital of the canton of the same 
name, is the second largest Swiss city after 
Zurich, and the largest French speaking city 
in the country. It has a population of more 
than 185,000 inhabitants and 450,000 in the 
canton. 
The first time this coming of age ceremony 
took place was in 1942, in order to highlight, 
in a solemn manner, the entry of young people 
into civic life. As from 1943, girls were also 
invited to a reception which at the beginning 
was held separately from the ceremony for 
boys. 
In 1999, the initial name of “Civic Celebrations” 
was replaced by “Citizenship Ceremony”, a 
term that was more appropriate for especially 
describing the acquisition by young people 
of their status as citizens. In 2000 there was 
another major change: as from that time all the 
young people who reside in the canton, Swiss 
or foreigner, are invited to this Citizenship 
Ceremony. The city of Geneva is thus showing 
everyone that it is “City of the World, City 
of Peace” which welcomes all young people 
without discrimination.
The Citizenship Ceremony is a unique occasion 
to make young people aware of their rights 
and duties as citizens, as well as contribute 
to the fostering of civic commitment and the 
development of a citizen-minded spirit. 
The ceremony, directed by Mr. Manuel Tornare, 
Administrative Councillor and Mayor of Geneva, 
is also attended by a (continued on page 2) 
“The city of Geneva has been ce-
lebrating the coming of legal age 
of its young people since 1942 by 
holding a reception, which, as well 
as being an informational and fun 
event, transmits the notion of indi-
vidual and collective responsibility 
for the rules and duties that make 
community life possible.”
experience 
Citizenship Ceremonies in Geneva, 
Coming of Age
editorial
Based on the request of different member cities, 
the International Association of Educating Cities 
has initiated, in an experimental phase, and in 
collaboration with the Spanish International 
Cooperation Agency for Development, the 
Seminar entitled “Educating City and Local 
Governance” for the main purpose of going 
deeper into the relationship between these two 
concepts and their adaptation to the different 
cities in the IAEC. 
This Seminar invites municipal officers, on the 
one hand, and different organisations from civil 
society, on the other, to discover and develop the 
educative sides of their programs and activities. 
Furthermore, we invite the participants to 
explore rational, realistic, diverse and useful 
forms of transversal collaboration: amongst the 
participants and between them and different 
organisations from civil society. 
In order to bring the proposal into line with 
different realities, there are 4 European and 4 
Latin American cities participating in this pilot 
phase of the seminar. Each of these seminars 
has three sessions: (continued on page 3) 
Citizenship Ceremony in Geneva© Xavier Richer
       The city of Changwon (Republic of Korea) 
is organising the seminar entitled “The Right 
to Learn, Citizenship Building, and the City 
as Community Maker” which will take place 
on 26 and 27 September.
Changwon, which sits on the Executive 
Committee since last April, conceived of 
this seminar in order to foster the growth, 
strengthening and dissemination of the IAEC 
in the Asia-Pacific region. To do so it has 
invited various Asian cities, the Secretariat 
and different IAEC member cities.
The seminar will combine plenary sessions 
and working groups, which will be organised 
around: 
The right to learn will delve deeper into 
how to foster this right amongst all people, 
reorganising the structure and socio-cultural 
environments of the city and promoting 
active participation of people in this process 
in different areas of education (formal, non-
formal and informal).
The citizenship building will approach the idea 
of how to promote citizen participation in order 
to delve deeper into the collective construction 
of the city as a democratic space. 
The city as community maker will explore 
further the need to learn to live together, 
interact with others by respecting their 
interests and values, and move from an 
orientation centred on individual interests 
to another based on shared objectives and 
social justice. 
This seminar will also make it possible for 
the participants to learn about the educating 
policies and experiences of Changwon, since 
it is being organised as part of the “Learning 
Festival” organised by the city each year.
Councillor of State as well as approximately 
one hundred cantonal, municipal and judicial 
representatives; it is organised by the Youth 
Bureau of the Department of Social Cohesion, 
Youth and Sports of the city of Geneva, 
and has the support of the Association of 
Municipalities of Geneva.
In order to attract the interest of the young 
people involved, the ceremony is divided into 
three parts: the first is an official section, 
presided over by the Mayor, in which the young 
people listen to a speech from a Councillor of 
State.
The second part consists of an interview 
with someone whose life-long journey is 
particularly significant to the community, 
and whose experience could have an 
impact on the young people.  At different 
celebrations they have invited, for example, 
a representative from the Free Afghanistan 
Association, a concentration camp survivor, 
a nun known for her charity work in several 
countries, a survivor of Hiroshima, on the 
anniversary of the first nuclear bomb attack, 
or, at the latest celebration, one of the first 
Swiss environmentalists. 
The third part of the celebration consists 
of a show; for example, comic skits evoking 
major events that have taken place in the city 
or canton. Finally, the young people receive 
a book of photographs of Geneva, a useful 
address guide both for their professional 
path and their daily life use and a purchase 
voucher to be spent as they choose on a 
DVD, book, etc. They are also reminded that 
from now on they are committed, responsible 
participants within the principle of social 
cohesion. 
At the last reception in January 2008 more 
than 1,100 people participated, including 900 
young people, which shows the tremendous 
acceptance of this celebration that has 
been held for more than 65 years and 
which fosters commitment amongst young 
people to democratic ideals, citizenship and 
coexistence. 
You can find more detailed information about 
this experience at the website www.edcities.org 
presented by: City Council of Geneva, 
Department of Youth
02 Educating Cities
experience
Citizenship Ceremonies in Geneva, 
Coming of Age
city networks
contact: Mr. Claudio Deuel
e-mail: claudio-deuel@ville-ge.ch
Official presentation with the Mayor
Young people enjoying the evening
interview
two in the form of workshops while the third 
consists of an assessment of the work carried out. 
In the first workshop, persons responsible for 
the management of services, departments, 
agencies or municipal companies participate 
in order to bring to light the educative factors 
implicit in the different policies, initiatives and 
actions and to foster collaboration between 
departments of the City Council.
The second workshop extends invitations to 
various groups of citizens with the same goal 
and to foster networking, both amongst these 
groups and with the local government.  
The objective of the third session, in which the 
IAEC expert team, formed by Mr Joan Manuel del 
Pozo and Mr Josep Centelles, intervenes along 
with representatives from the Municipality, is 
to make an evaluation of the previous sessions 
and put forward a small number of actions to be 
encouraged or implemented in the short term 
by the Municipal Government, in the framework 
of the Charter of Educating Cities.
At the final seminar an additional session 
is planned to evaluate the contents and 
methodology of the pilot seminar and the 
results obtained. The considerations arising 
from the evaluation will provide indispensable 
information for a later stage in training actions 
of this type. All the cities in the pilot group will 
participate in this sessions, which will also be 
open to attendance from other cities. 
The Secretariat of the IAEC
C/Avinyó 15, 4th floor
08002 Barcelona (Spain)
Ph. + 34 93 342 77 20  
Fax. +34 93 342 77 29
E-mail: bidce@bcn.cat
Which have been the political and social 
changes of note in the «Genoa, Educating 
City» process? 
This challenge, full of risks and opportunities, 
cannot be achieved alone: in this process 
other institutions, associations, organisations, 
schools, universities, companies, foundations, 
banks and the citizenry in general meet, with 
the same level of importance.  This broad level 
of participation, as utopian as you can imagine, 
but just as ineluctable, concerns itself with all the 
issues involved in configuring the governance 
required for the collective construction of the 
city, a solid ideal value set out in the Charter 
referring to the educative project of the city.
 
What does the Eugenia Pact consist of and 
what is its balance sheet?
It is a process that is an attempt to promote 
active citizenship on the part of citizens 
and social organisations; cross-institutional 
coordination; expansion of the public sphere 
through the diffusion and decentralisation of 
institutions, power and social inclusion; as well 
as the activation of resources and synergies 
addressed to city development linked to 
cultural growth of individuals. No obligations 
have been imposed on the signers of the pact; 
there has been no interference in relation 
to the legitimacy of the educative decisions 
made outside the limits of the pact; we have 
not tried to configure it as a form of privileged 
access to public resources. It has reached an 
acceptable level of self-organisation, with its 
own regulations on how it functions, and it has 
so far been signed by 400 citizens. In the last 
five years it has convened various assemblies, 
coordination meetings and meetings of the 
thematic committees and it has prepared a 
considerable volume of documentation.
 
Which changes have taken place in the 
municipal government in order to foster 
citizen participation?
We are carrying out initiatives to listen to and 
engage in dialogue with the citizens through 
the organisation of meetings with committees 
or individuals, with the collaboration of a bureau 
set up for this purpose that is called “Dialogue 
with Citizens and Saturdays with the Mayor”, 
which gathers letters sent to the Council, 
which it hands over to the Departments of the 
Council and the competent services, follows up 
their administrative course and provides the 
citizens with feedback. This powerful attempt 
to find specific forms and initiatives for citizen 
participation, in the different phases of city 
government, is based on a reform tending 
towards the maximum decentralisation and a 
solid idea of the dimensions of the Metropolitan 
City as a place for redefining projects for the 
future of the city, from the improvement in the 
quality of the services provided to its citizens 
to the ongoing construction of a sense of 
belonging.
 
What does forming part of the IAEC mean 
for Genoa? 
Participation in this network fosters the 
visibility of Genoa in the world, increases the 
potential for knowledge and dialogue on the 
course of international events and constitutes 
a major learning experience for administrators 
and civil servants. 
Which are the benefits of the existence 
of an Educating City bureau within the 
organisational structure of the City 
Council? 
The main purpose is to be able to guarantee 
that we have a place to promote and expedite 
a large number of public policies which today 
are characterised by the transversality of the 
interventions, by inter- and intra-institutional 
coordination capacity, and by cooperative 
methodologies amongst the municipal services 
and outside them.
 
Which future challenges does Genoa face as 
an Educating City?
We have the need and opportunity to upgrade 
our trajectory as an Educating City based on 
two aspects. The first refers to the contents 
and the second to the method. The questions 
posed have not exhausted their own strength 
and deep significance: “Which are the social 
and integrating policies we need?  How do 
we confront the major urban and social 
transformations? What does opening up to 
citizen participation mean?”
 
All of these are questions that are fully 
relevant today. We find ourselves in a situation 
of having to reformulate the responses that 
we have hardly sketched out, because they 
have already been surpassed by legislative 
changes, by the activity of the social agents, 
by the growing splitting up of social links, by 
the ongoing reduction of resources, by the 
advance of the new technologies, etc.
In relation to methodology, it appears that the 
issue of the analysis and location of citizen 
resources for carrying out a specific project 
for the city, which has been so valuable in 
the last few years for the development of 
Genoa, cannot be postponed.  We understand 
“resources” here to mean the effort made to 
obtain the greatest involvement possible of 
the citizenry in their future.
 
For more information go to: www.edcities.org
Marta Vincenzi
Mayor of Genoa, Italy
03 Educating Cities
editorial
Bearing in mind that health is one of the 
most important aspects of quality of life, 
fostering healthy living conditions and the 
proper running of public health services are 
also very important for the population in 
general.
The City Council of Sabadell, a city of 
approximately 200,000 inhabitants located 
20 kms. northwest of Barcelona, set up the 
Municipal Health Council in 2000 in order to 
improve the health policies of the city and 
the quality of life of its citizens.  This is done 
through a participatory lense which takes into 
account the needs of the population and the 
vision of different social agents in decision 
making and planning of municipal health 
policies. 
In the initial phase of the participatory project, 
the consortium opened itself up to a discussion 
in order to define the statutes, actions and 
participation mechanisms of the council. Once 
the working methodology was defined, the 
ordinary meetings were first held, which have 
been taking place 3 or 4 times per year since 
then.
Participating in the Council are: the Municipal 
Health Service; representatives of the 
regional government; primary health care 
services; hospital services; neighbourhood 
associations; trade unions; political parties 
and representatives of the city districts. 
Furthermore, of special note is the presence 
of persons with special difficulties (patients 
with chronic and mental illnesses) and their 
relatives, who can directly impact the health 
services they receive. The idea is to involve all 
the social agents who intervene in one way or 
another in the health area.
All of these agents exchange knowledge and 
information and make it possible to design 
and start up policies and initiatives in the 
health area adapted to the real needs of the 
population. Moreover, by including citizens 
in the decision making, the Municipal Health 
Council is fostering both the legitimacy of the 
programs set up by public administrations as 
well as the co-responsibility of the citizens 
themselves in promoting health. 
One of the first results of the meetings of the 
Health Council was the creation of different 
working commissions including, of special 
note, the “Mental Health Working Group”, 
set up in 2001. This group, amongst other 
initiatives, has promoted the drafting of an 
action protocol for psychiatric emergencies.
Another example of the work of the Council is 
the Project against Depression, an awareness 
campaign designed to foster its early detection 
led by the “Consorci Hospitalari Parc Taulí”, 
which also involves the participation of civil 
society. 
The Council has also intervened in the process 
of creating the Municipal Plan against Drug 
Addition, and, in community health projects 
in the Neighborhood Refurbishment Plan 
promoted by the City Council and the Catalan 
Regional Government in order to stamp out 
urban decay and improve the quality of life 
in the districts of Sabadell, in this case: Can 
Puiggener and Torre Romeu.
The accumulated experience after 8 years 
of work has encouraged more coordination 
amongst entities, institutions and the City 
Council and has allowed the city to detect gaps 
and to set up specific plans. The challenge 
that is posed for the near future is to increase 
the involvement of the citizenry in terms of 
their individual and collective responsibility in 
health related issues.
You can find more detailed information about 
this experience at the website www.edcities.org 
experience 
Sabadell fosters citizen co-responsibility 
on health issues
1. The City Council of Palmela (Portugal) 
has been fostering the training of adults in the 
municipality through a system of Recognition, 
Validation and Certification of Skills acquired 
throughout one’s life. Skilled technicians 
issue certificates in primary and secondary 
education or give guidance to individuals in 
programming the training required to obtain 
their diplomas.
2. The Diversity Stamp is an initiative of 
the Department of Labour of the City Council of 
Sao Paulo (Brazil) to recognise and give value 
to the effort of companies and organisations 
in promoting cultural and gender diversity and 
in equalising the working conditions of their 
employees.  
3. León Charge your Batteries is 
a program of this Mexican City Council 
created to collect and recycle batteries, 
thus reducing pollution caused by poor 
management of this waste product. 
Thanks to this awareness campaign 
León has treated more than 12,000 
tonnes of batteries since 2007.
04 Educating Cities
the voices of the cities
“Citizens, social entities and 
institutions in Sabadell are in-
volved in improving health and 
the quality of life in their city 
through participation in the 
Municipal Health Council”
presented by: City Council of Sabadell, Health Services    contact: Ms. Teresa Corbella    e-mail: tcorbella@ajsabadell.cat
Council meeting
did you 
know that...
    On 26 June Santarém hosted a meeting 
of the IAEC Portuguese network under the 
theme of: “The delegation of powers to the 
municipalities “.
   During June and July the pilot training 
seminar on “Educating Cities and Local 
Governance” was held in Rosario, Quito and 
Medellín”.
     Guadalajara invites all cities in the IAEC to 
discuss the theme of the 11th Congress: “Sport, 
Public Policies and Citizenship” through the 
blog: http://xiaice.guadalajara.gob.mx 
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