“Parliaments and Youth: Bridging the Gap” workshop

On 24-26 November, INTER PARES organized the workshop ‘Parliaments and Youth: Bridging the Gap'. The workshop brought together representatives of EU institutions, EU Member State Parliaments, Partner Parliaments from around the world, and youth organisations to to strategize for enhanced youth participation in democratic decision-making. The workshop explores a range of successful initiatives and solutions to overcome barriers to effective youth participation in parliamentary processes.  The discussion also helped identify gaps between the needs of youth and the avenues for participation currently offered by parliaments.

Over 40 representatives from different national parliaments and youth organisations from 24 countries joined the three-day workshop. Examples shared at the workshop ranged from research on challenges to inclusion faced by youth, working to make young people aware they belong in politics, through to targeted programmes to support youth capacity to have an impact in democratic decision-making. Participants shared and discussed global and national initiatives being used around the world to increase youth participation in parliaments including Youth Parliaments, Youth Councils and Youth Programmes hosted by parliament.

During interactive breakout sessions, recommendations were gathered on increasing youth participation in parliamentary processes. Lessons learned include a need for action from parliaments to better support young people’s engagement in political processes and a focus on how youth and youth groups can themselves strategize to enhance their effectiveness.

As the next step, INTER PARES is setting up a Working Group on Youth, involving parliaments and youth representatives. The purpose of the working group will be to refine and implement the INTER PARES Youth Strategy which will include initiatives such as development of an e-learning course, pilot-testing a Youth Parliamentary Academy, and other initiatives. We welcome all your ideas and participation in this important and exciting work stream: interpares@idea.int