This oral statement was broadcasted at the 54th Session of the Human Rights Council Interactive Dialogue with the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development. Watch the video statement here.
Distinguished delegates,
My name is Mahfuz Alam and I am making this statement on behalf of the Right Here Right Now Coalition and the Asian Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women, ARROW.
In this statement I call on the member states to take action on the following recommendations to ensure meaningful youth engagement in policy and decision-making processes from the right-to-development perspective.
1. Ensure meaningful youth engagement in the policy level to harness the critical voices and hopeful vision of young people to identify new solutions to current and potential challenges with stronger national commitment and vigorous international cooperation.
2. In line with the Declaration on the Right to Development, fostering civic space is essential for youth engagement. Hence, strengthening new mechanisms and bodies, including digital platforms, at the national, regional and global levels to enable the meaningful engagement of young people in all their diversity.
3. Ensure commitment towards adequate, albeit ambitious, medium- and long-term financial support, intergenerational solidarity and committed support for their empowerment and the strengthening of their capacity for meaningful youth participation.
4. Ensure that youth and their participation is safe and based on transparent processes and includes appropriate feedback.
5. Youth participation is a human right and the exclusion of youth might amount to a violation of their rights. Ensure mechanisms that guarantee their meaningful engagement based on non-discrimination, guarantees for greater diversity and representation and equal opportunity and dignity for all.
6. Young people, including young women and girls, in more vulnerable situations or humanitarian settings like the pandemic, such as those from rural areas, Indigenous Peoples or those living in stressful economic, health and social conditions, from a diversity of cultures, countries and regions, living with disability must be involved in the design and adoption of the necessary changes and reforms.
7. Ensure that innovative policies, strategies and cooperation agreements, including the use of technology, digital platforms and it’s safety also smooth technology transfer, reduction of digital divide, and intergenerational partnerships engage meaningful youth participation.
