Children and Young People Participating in Decision Making - A Call for Action

The Alliance of Youth Executive Officers (the Alliance), represents a membership of over 100 million young people. Together with UNICEF they form a partnership with substantial practical experience in helping children and young people to fully participate in society. They recognize an obligation to enable children and young people to engage with civil society to find solutions to today’s problems and not to wait until tomorrow to address them.
Much work has been done by the Alliance since its inception, within the individual organizations and as a coalition, to involve children and young people in decision-making. UNICEF too has been actively promoting the participation of children and young people at country, regional and global levels. The partnership between the Alliance and UNICEF, therefore, offers an ideal opportunity to promote good practices that provide models of youth participation in decision-making.
The concept of producing a guidance document on children and young people’s participation in decision-making was the result of a joint consultation held in May 2003. The outline and content for the paper were developed at a follow-up workshop held in Geneva. This workshop was attended by youth representatives, and specialists in youth participation, from all the Alliance partners and UNICEF.