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Gemma Hobcraft
24 years old
Youth Coalition
England

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Gemma is 24 and lives in London, England. She is in the process of qualifying as a Barrister and will begin her final stage of training later this year. She is studying for a Masters in Human Rights Law and will spend the summer working at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Her involvement in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) began in 1999 where she joined forces with other young people to form the basis of what would become the Youth Coalition (YC) – an organization of young people working internationally for SRHR. She has been active with the Youth Coalition since that time and has served a term on the Steering Committee, been Editor of the Newsletter, and is currently the co-chair of the Human Rights Taskforce – co-coordinating the YC's Human Rights work. She has grown up with the YC and has had the opportunity to facilitate workshops internationally and also to advocate at many international meetings, including the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Plus Five, ICPD Plus Ten, Beijing Plus Ten, and the World AIDS Conference in Barcelona in 2002). In terms of work experience, Gemma has interned at the United Nations Foundation (Women and Population Division), the Center for Reproductive Rights, the Kurdish Human Rights Project, and the UK Gay and Lesbian Immigration Group. She has completed two year terms on the Steering Committee of the UK network for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, and on the Steering Committee of the Youth Coalition and three years as a Director of a UK-based development non-governmental organization (NGO). She is currently on the Executive Committee of the UK Human Rights Lawyers Association. Gemma also co-authored a submission for the International Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, published in 2006, which addresses the obstacles facing young people in accessing SRHR services. More locally, while completing her undergraduate degree, Gemma volunteered and worked in the sexual health drop-in center as Project Worker, co-coordinating volunteer sexual health advisers for both the drop-in center and outreach activities. She also volunteered with the HIV/AIDS charity—the Terrence Higgins Trust—and also wrote numerous articles on SRHR issues to highlight them to the student body.

IWHC: How did you get involved in the struggle for women's and young people's rights?

Gemma Hobcraft: I got involved at the local level during high school as part of the School Council and then as a School representative on the local Youth Council. A local Youth Council is comprised of representatives from all participating local schools. The Council works out what issues are of common concern and how best to advocate for them. An issue exploded when a local Catholic School refused to allow condoms and anything more than biology-focused sex education to be available in the school. It got me very wound up and from there I just did what I could to start an awareness campaign about contraceptives and safe and enjoyable sex. Quite naively at the time, I could not understand why there were so many obstacles and people trying to get in the way. So that fuelled my fire and from there I was lucky enough to go to the Youth Forum in the Hague, organized as part of the ICPD Plus Five review process in 1999. It was there that I got my first taste of frustrations working with the United Nations (UN), but also the energy and commitment of advocates. I met many like-minded young people and this was where the Youth Coalition idea was hatched. The Youth Coalition is an organization of young people from all over the world working internationally for sexual and reproductive rights (SRR), through advocating for SRR and youth participation at the regional and international levels and by designing and delivering training workshops for young advocates in the field. I still work with many of these same colleagues, some eight years later.

IWHC: What inspired you to begin working with an organization or network?

GH: What inspired me was my initial experiences with the barriers facing young people in accessing information about their SRHR. Honestly, it was a total eye-opener being at the Youth Forum in the Hague. Everyone was talking about what 'developing countries' needed to do for reproductive health and I was just thinking – England isn't that great. As an example, after much lobbying we got a sexual health drop-in service opened in the local town (near our school), but it was so ill-funded that it had very limited operating hours. Despite our protests, the service was only open during school hours. That really got me thinking about youth participation. If there had been meaningful participation throughout the process of establishing the drop-in center, perhaps opening hours would have been much more youth-friendly and sensible (not two words that often go in the same sentence!). So, I guess it was a combination of things that inspired me to start working with the Youth Coalition, because I had an addiction to SRHR (born out of sheer frustration) which I had to feed.

IWHC: How do you feel that your work, or the work of your organization, has changed young people's lives, either in specific instances or in general?

GH: I am not sure that is for me to evaluate. I could approach it on one level and say that X number of people may have attended our training workshops or worked with us at UN meetings, or visited our website or read any of our publications, but has that changed their lives? I don't know, only they can answer that. Our aim is definitely to effect change at all levels to ensure that SRHR are a reality for all young people. I hope that if we haven't already effected change that we are working towards it-or are at least chipping away at the barriers standing in the way of both meaningful youth participation and young people's SRHR.

IWHC: How can activists, policymakers, different groups work together to bring young people to the table?

GH: By asking young people to the table! It distresses me greatly how so many people in decision-making roles just don't think sensibly about youth participation. They don't think about it early enough, if they think of it at all, which leaves young people playing catch up and in a situation feeling totally out of their depth. Then begins the patronizing talk, "Oh, you would have been in nappies when that happened, you can't be expected to remember it" – phrases which almost become the equivalent of that haunting childhood refrain we have all heard too many times, "My, haven't you grown."

There is a Children's Inquiry being undertaken in England and Wales at the moment and the Children's Commissioner suddenly decided that Youth Participation would be a good idea, to canvas the views of children. So how did he advertise for these children? In a broadsheet newspaper full-page advert, asking for children to get in touch. Now, some children do read newspapers, but is this really the best way to reach children and to reach a representative group of children who can reflect the realities of childhood experiences across the country? I can't help but think that it is not. This just underscores that when involving young people is done in haste, at the last minute-as is often the case-the selection processes which result are not thoughtful, fair or accessible.

My first position on a Board for a UK development NGO was a daunting one. I was the youngest around the table by some 30 years and I didn't know whether the questions that I wanted to ask were stupid. Everyone else seemed to know what they were talking about and what all the acronyms were (ways of making things inaccessible to people not in the know - as well as a convenient short-hand). I felt this way until the next meeting when another new Board member had his first meeting – he was in his fifties and he asked all the questions that I had wanted to ask at my first meeting. That made me realize that it is not a youth issue (although I think it can often feel that you are fighting against the weight of loudly thrown around experience), it is just being in a new situation. Since that day I have always asked questions that I want and need to in new situations - it is so important to find out all the information you need so that you can work out your strategy for each meeting. 

IWHC: Do you have positive examples from your professional or personal experience in which both dialogue and programming have achieved meaningful youth participation or leadership? What was effective about these particular examples?

GH: Absolutely. The Countdown 2015 process as part of the ICPD Plus Ten review. Often young people are asked (or have to fight their way) to the table late in the process. For the Countdown 2015 Roundtable (to coincide with the ten year review of the ICPD Programme of Action in 2004) we were at the table from the first meeting and we definitely made the most of that. We put together a strong proposal that at least 20 percent of the participants to the Roundtable would be young people and that, where possible, 20 percent of the speakers would also be young people. We also put forward that there should be a significant number of scholarships for young people who face financial difficulties in attending such meetings. We also really pushed and asked for a Youth Day, one day prior to the meeting, so that all the young participants could come together and plan our strategy to make the most of the conference and to ensure that everyone was oriented sufficiently. This was hard work-we really had to push for everything and then, it seemed, work ten times as hard to ensure that "these privileges" weren't taken away from us. It often feels that with youth participation some adults around the table are waiting for you to fail and so you have to keep ten steps ahead and work really hard to prove yourself. I hope that one day it won't be like that and we can keep our place at the table as our right, rather than as a luxury that we should be grateful for.

We also shouldn't expect things handed to us on a silver platter—that I understand—but what made youth participation more difficult was that most people on the 2015 Steering Committee were volunteers, and able to volunteer in their capacity as a paid staff person within an organization. For all of us young people on the Steering Committee, this was volunteering laid on volunteering. We did this in our capacity as volunteers, representing organizations where we were already volunteers. This is a heavy burden which limits involvement and really means that you have a lot to juggle- school, part-time work, friends, various volunteer activities-if you want to be active in this field. But, it is definitely worth every minute, although it would be nice if one day young people's contributions were remunerated, rather than expected on a voluntary basis.

The Countdown process was a success-we worked hard to ensure that it was. We had a successful Youth Day-20 percent of all participants were young, many spoke on panels, and many young people took positions of responsibility in the conference. We had a youth stream of events that ran throughout the conference and was popular and well-attended. We had young people speaking at all of the plenary sessions. It was really an achievement for youth participation and young people's SRHR. I try to carry it forward in other work to push for a similar approach.

IWHC: What are your dreams for the future? Can you describe your vision of an ideal or better world?

GH: I think this may sound very cynical, but I try not to dream. I try to act on the here and now, and then just add hope. I try to focus on what I can do to chip away at a few bricks in the wall full of barriers to the full realization of SRHR. The pathway that I have chosen is as a lawyer - I realized fairly early on in my advocacy career that law can be used effectively as a catalyst to precipitate change and ensure rights are realized. I became a lawyer because of my background in SRHR and every day I know that was the right choice. I love law and I love working for SRHR so, one day, to be able to combine the two would be a dream come true.

IWHC: How did you first become acquainted with IWHC?

GH: I think probably at the ICPD Plus 5 process during 1999, but more so during the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Children (CRC review) in 2002. IWHC representatives were a really strong force at both of these meetings and I was very impressed by their work. I learnt a great deal from the advocacy strategies and processes that they employed. Everyone I met from IWHC was clearly very passionate about their work and very determined to ensure the best outcome in terms of SRHR in the outcome documents and beyond at both meetings. This was pretty inspiring and made me realize the importance of not giving in or up at UN meetings.