28/05/2021 Standing Committee
The PACE Standing Committee, meeting today by videoconference, deplores that nearly six years after the adoption of the first landmark resolution of the UN Security Council on youth, peace and security, little progress has been made and that the potential of young people as agents of peace actors remains largely unused.
According to the parliamentarians, involving youth merely in the prevention and resolution of conflicts is not enough; they should also be engaged in political processes and decision-making that affects them, in order to address global challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, human rights or the UN Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) set for 2030.
By adopting a resolution, based on the report of Inka Hopsu (Finland, SOC), the Standing Committee called on member States to consider young people as indispensable partners in any peace or political processes, to allocate adequate resources to youth organisations at local and national level, and to introduce into the school curricula, from the earliest age, democratic citizenship and human rights education, conflict transformation, reconciliation, political participation and intercultural dialogue.
It underlined that national parliaments had a significant role to play in strengthening links with young people, in particular by promoting youth participation in political processes, for example by lowering the voting and eligibility age, and setting youth quotas for political parties to enhance the selection of young candidates.