Core Principles for Meaningful Youth Participation in Intergovernmental Processes and Across the Work of the UN
Youth participation must be the rule, not the exception. Around the world, young people are organizing, innovating, and leading. They are not waiting for permission — they are shaping the future. Institutions must keep up.
The 2023 Policy Brief on Meaningful Youth Engagement called for a decisive shift: from symbolic inclusion to genuine partnership. Member States answered that call through the Pact for the Future.
The Core Principles for Meaningful Youth Participation take the next step — turning commitment into practice and toward shared decision making that reflects young people in all their diversity.
These Core Principles are grounded in human rights and demand action: removing barriers, protecting civic space, and investing in youth leadership.
Let us make meaningful youth participation standard in the inter-governmental processes of the United Nations and everywhere — restoring trust, renewing democracy, and building a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world for all.