SPECIAL REPORT: UNITED NATIONS AT 75 THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE UN
THE IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH ENGAGEMENT WITH PARLIAMENTS: VIEW FROM THE UN SECRETARY-GENERAL’S ENVOY ON YOUTH The international community’s approach to youth engagement today is paving the way for sustainable development, peace, the Agenda 2030 and for leaving no one behind. Young people, as the dominant majority population in most developing countries today, are pioneers in political action, innovation, entrepreneurship and peacebuilding. Yet, young people face a plethora of social, economic and political barriers that undermine their ability as changemakers. To utilize young people’s change-making capacity to the fullest, their participation needs to be facilitated at all levels including in civic and political life. This is not just key to the realisation of the Agenda 2030 but also one of its core requirements.2 Today, young people under 30 make up more than half of the global population - the largest generation of youth the world has ever known. In the Commonwealth, 60% of its 2.4 billion population are aged under 30. However, only around 2% of elected legislators worldwide are under the age of 30 and 65% of the chambers of Parliament continue to impose a ‘waiting time’ between the age to vote and the age of eligibility to run for political office imposing age restrictions on entering democratic institutions.3 Despite the many barriers that exclude young people from accessing and meaningfully participating in formal political spaces, young people around the world are not waiting to be heard, but insist on claiming their space, pushing for change and serving their communities. The recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the exemplary resilience, courage and ingenuity that young people have demonstrated in the face of adversity and uncertainty that affect their futures more than anything. Further, not only have they risen to the occasion to take on the ‘new normal’ post-COVID-19, but they have actively taken a leadership role in pioneering their communities out of the crisis by
working at the frontlines as healthcare workers, innovating creative solutions, combating misinformation online, distributing rations, volunteering to support elders and raising awareness online, and mobilising their peers. Young people play an indispensable role in reimagining their communities and are constantly leading action for a better and more sustainable world. And I strongly believe, that when someone is old enough to vote, they should be old enough to run for office. This is why my Office, together with partners such as the Youth Initiative for Advocacy Growth & Advancement of Nigeria (YIAGA) founded the ‘Not too Young to Run’ Campaign in Nigeria to elevate the promotion of young people’s right to run for public office and address the widespread issue of age discrimination. This is also the fourth priority area of the UN Youth Strategy, Youth2030, launched by the UN Secretary-General in 2018, focusing on young people’s human rights and their civic and political engagement through the promotion of young people’s right to participate in public affairs, including in political and civic processes, platforms and institutions at all levels, such as elections, constitutionmaking processes, political parties and Parliaments.4 Young people’s ability to run for public office is a right, but age discrimination laws often prevent them from doing so. Removing legal barriers to running for public office is the right thing to do and gives everyone an equal chance. The active participation of young people in electoral politics is essential to thriving and representative democracies worldwide. Young people must have every right to engage fully in the democratic process, and that includes the right for young people to run for office themselves.5 I believe that young people today have the energy, and the right to run for public office and that any efforts to prevent them from doing so serve to limit citizen participation. Research supports this
Ms Jayathma Wickramanayake
is the United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth. Having represented and motivated global youth development on an international level since the age of 21, she has played a key role in transforming the youth development sector at the national level, notably through the creation of a large movement for civic and political engagement of young people named ‘Hashtag Generation’. She worked previously as Secretary to the Secretary General of the Parliament of Sri Lanka (2016-2017) and was a Senator in the Sri Lankan Youth Parliament (20132015). She has also worked on the World Conference on Youth (2013-2014) and was the Sri Lankan Youth Delegate to the United Nations (2012-2013).1
240 | The Parliamentarian | 2020: Issue Three | 100 years of publishing 1920-2020
