Strengthening the youth perspective in the work of the Parliamentary Assembly
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly
debate on 25 June 2024 (17th sitting) (see Doc. 15871, report of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy,
rapporteur: Mr Anastasios Chatzivasileiou; and Doc. 15872, opinion of the Committee on Culture, Science, Education
and Media, rapporteur: Ms Yevheniia Kravchuk). Text adopted by the Assembly on
25 June 2024 (17th sitting).
1. Taking on
board the views, expectations and concerns of youth is an essential
precondition for ensuring the good functioning of democracy and
its capacity to pursue, with a long-term perspective, the public
good. Young people bring dynamism, a fresh impetus and new ideas
to a full range of policy issues, which is key to addressing today’s
challenges and contributes to effective, inclusive and sustainable
policy making.
2. Regrettably, young people are underrepresented in parliaments
and do not engage sufficiently with traditional politics due, inter alia, to legislative and other
barriers, prejudices and a lack of opportunities. This reinforces
their disenchantment with political life, undermines the representativeness
of elected institutions and raises questions about intergenerational
justice. It also affects the effectiveness and future sustainability
of democracy as a governance system, as young people are those who
will be the most affected by the decisions taken today on longer-term
issues such as climate change, environmental protection and widening
inequalities.
3. The Parliamentary Assembly firmly believes that increasing
youth participation in political platforms and decision making can
lead to more resilient democracies, help tackle democratic backsliding
and increase the political engagement of young people and their
legislative representation. It strongly welcomes, therefore, the stance
taken by the Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe
during their 4th Summit that a youth perspective should be included
in all Council of Europe intergovernmental and other deliberations.
4. The Assembly underlines that the Council of Europe is a pioneer,
promoter and innovator in youth participation, notably with the
establishment of the European Youth Centres based in Strasbourg
and Budapest, the European Youth Foundation and the co-management
system, which gives an equal voice to young Europeans, represented
by the Advisory Council on Youth (CCJ), and to the representatives
of public authorities responsible for youth issues, in the formulation
of the Organisation’s youth policies and programmes.
5. The Assembly highlights the achievements of the Council of
Europe youth sector during its fifty years of existence and the
individual and collective contributions that young people and their
organisations continue to make in uniting the continent and supporting
democracy, human rights and the rule of law in the member States of
the Council of Europe. It also commends the campaign “Democracy
here. Democracy now.”, which aims at revitalising democracy by strengthening
mutual trust between young people and democratic institutions.
6. The Assembly also notes that, since 2014, the Congress of
Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe has implemented
an initiative aimed at rejuvenating political life by inviting young
people to take part in its sessions as youth delegates, to have
their say in the debates and to exchange ideas with Congress members
on the issues on the agenda.
7. Furthermore, the Assembly takes positive note of the initiatives
taken by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE-PA)
to discuss the challenges faced by young people and their interests,
to boost the participation of young people in parliaments and to
ensure that young members of parliament play a full part in their
work. It notes with satisfaction that the platforms put in place
by these international parliaments, which regroup their youngest members,
greatly contribute to including a youth perspective in their decision
making and to keeping youth issues high on their agendas.
8. In the light of these considerations, the Assembly resolves
to establish a mechanism aimed at ensuring that a youth perspective
is systematically taken into account in its deliberations. The “PACE-Youth
Participation Mechanism” foreseen by the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE) would rely on the participation
of members of the Assembly and young Europeans, represented by the
CCJ and other structures in the Council of Europe youth sector.
The mechanism would function as follows:
8.1 each of the Assembly’s general committees (with the exception
of the Committee on the Election of Judges to the European Court
of Human Rights) should appoint, from among its full members or alternates,
a “Youth Rapporteur” who would be responsible for presenting a youth
perspective in the debates on the reports under preparation in the
committee, and who for this purpose would liaise with CCJ members
and other structures in the Council of Europe youth sector working
on specific files. The mandate of Youth Rapporteur should not exceed
two years and should be renewable once;
8.2 when appointing the Youth Rapporteur, in addition to the
criteria of competence and availability, fair representation of
political groups (based on the D’Hondt system), gender-balanced
representation and geographical and national balance, committees
should also give due regard to the age of the candidates, with a
view to ensuring that young members of the Assembly are given appropriate
visibility in its work. Upon their appointment, the Youth Rapporteurs
should make a declaration of interests;
8.3 during plenary debates, the Youth Rapporteur of the committee
which is seized for report should have the right to take the floor
after the representatives of the political groups;
8.4 on an annual basis, the Assembly’s Youth Rapporteurs should
hold a meeting with the CCJ to discuss the Assembly’s reports under
preparation, identify new issues for debate and envisage joint initiatives
and co-operation activities (the annual session of the PACE-Youth
Participation Mechanism). The discussions may cover any substantive
issues and should not be limited to youth policies;
8.5 on an annual basis, the Bureau of the Assembly should
be invited to hold a strategic exchange of views with the joint
bureaux of the CCJ and the European Steering Committee for Youth
(CDEJ), with the participation of the Youth Rapporteurs from each
committee;
8.6 once a year, the Assembly should hold a debate on a specific
theme agreed during the above-mentioned strategic exchange of views,
with the participation of the members of the CCJ;
8.7 the PACE-Youth Participation Mechanism would operate within
the framework of increased interaction between the Assembly and
the youth sector: whenever possible, members of the CCJ, other structures
in the Council of Europe youth sector and youth organisations should
be invited to contribute to the preparation of reports, by participating
in hearings and exchanges, and presenting contributions at committee
level. This process should include a yearly exchange, for example
at the beginning of the year, on current priorities and issues for
future work in each committee. At the same time, the participation
of the Assembly’s Youth Rapporteurs and other Assembly representatives
in the Council of Europe’s youth sector meetings and activities
should be encouraged.
9. The Assembly calls on its Bureau to take the necessary measures
to ensure that the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure and complementary
texts are amended to take into account paragraph 8 and its sub-paragraphs shown
above.
10. Being aware that strengthening the youth perspective in political
decision making requires a wide range of measures and the involvement
of many actors, the Assembly invites national delegations to:
10.1 ensure and increase the presence
of young parliamentarians among their members;
10.2 reserve a certain number of seats for young parliamentarians
and take measures to encourage their active participation in the
work of the Assembly;
10.3 consider reserving a “youth seat” for a member of their
national parliament who is also a representative of a youth organisation.
11. The Assembly invites its political groups to consider ways
to increase youth participation in their work, including by:
11.1 regularly inviting youth representatives
to participate in their meetings and supporting and facilitating
their participation;
11.2 giving young members greater visibility and opportunities
to actively participate in the work of the Assembly;
11.3 actively calling on their respective national political
parties to undertake institutional reforms to increase youth representation,
in particular young women, including by devising new recruitment strategies,
allocating funding to young candidates and actively supporting them
in running for election, and empowering party youth groups.
12. With the objective of strengthening the youth perspective
in political decision making at national level, the Assembly calls
on the national parliaments of Council of Europe member States to
create the conditions for the widest possible participation of young
people, in particular young women, in political decision making and
to this effect to:
12.1 remove legislative
barriers which prevent young people from running for office, including
by aligning the voting age and the age required for running for
office;
12.2 step up co-operation with national youth councils, youth
organisations and networks, including by co-organising meetings
to hold thematic discussions on topical issues, thus enabling youth
to share their ideas, perspectives and solutions;
12.3 set up, if they have not yet done so, participatory mechanisms
to allow mainstreaming of a youth perspective in parliament’s work;
12.4 set up an informal network of young parliamentarians.
13. The Assembly supports the introduction of youth quotas by
political parties and encourages them to carry out a feasibility
study to this end.
14. The Assembly refers to
Resolution
2378 (2021) “Strengthening the role of young people in the prevention
and resolution of conflicts”. It acknowledges the challenge that
young people and young parliamentarians must face in countries where
they suffer from the devastating consequences of a war and in regions
affected by frozen conflict. It also recognises that they must be
given a stronger role in promoting dialogue and mutual understanding,
and will thus seek to provide all of the Assembly’s young parliamentarians with
greater opportunities to work together and contribute to the Assembly’s
efforts towards conflict prevention and resolution.
