Au début des années 1600, Shakespeare fit dire à l’un de ses personnages : « Je voudrais qu’il n’y eût point d’âge entre dix et vingt-trois ans, ou que la jeunesse dormît tout le reste du temps dans l’intervalle : car on ne fait autre chose dans l’intervalle que donner des enfants aux filles, insulter des vieillards, piller et se battre ».
In the early 1600s, Shakespeare had one of his characters say: “I would there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the anciently, stealing, fighting.1”. This traditional view that adolescence is the worst part of life is unfortunately deeply ingrained in the human psyche.
Already at a young age, Caroline Samandari-Avanzo’s family experienced gross human rights violations under the Iranian regime during the 1980s and 1990s. The resilience of her parents inspired her to pursue a career in human rights with various NGOs (in Paris, New Delhi and Geneva) and the United Nations.