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PRIORITYMEASURE8
“Guarantee also the existence ofmechanisms for the effective participation, without any form of discrimination, of adolescents and young people inpublic debate,
in decision-making and inall policy and programme phases, in particular onmatters that affect them directly, and strengthen institutional mechanisms for youth.”
Possible lines of action
1. Endow the institutions responsible for promoting and enforcing the rights of adolescents and young people with informal and open
channels and forums where adolescents and young people can participate and express their opinions; 2. Establish rules and procedures
and mechanisms to guarantee the inclusion of young people and adolescents in the advisory bodies of the various public institutions
involved in policies that concern them; 3. Define mechanisms to guarantee the inclusion and participation of adolescents and young
people in the advisory and deliberative bodies of the legislative sphere, in particular in the processing of legislation that concerns them;
4. Establish publicly available virtual and/or physical forums for consulting adolescents and young people on public decisions that affect
them, and promote, encourage and facilitate participation in those forums by adolescents and young people; 5. Document the experiences
and lessons learned from the existing youthmechanisms in the region, in order to promotemore effective work and a stronger influence
on public policies affecting young people; 6. Createmechanisms for mainstreaming the perspective of adolescents and young people and
their organizations in all national policies.
Targets
1. To have in place an institutional structure for youth affairs that defines, implements, and successfully promotes participation by
adolescents and young people in public affairs; 2. Increase the number of public bodies with mechanisms for effective participation by
young people and adolescents in public policies that affect them, in all their phases; 3. Adolescents and young people have the
opportunity to submit observations and comments on proposed legislation, especially that affecting them, during its legislative
processing; 4. Adolescents and young people express their opinions directly (through virtual or physical means) and have an influence on
public decisions that affect them; 5. Increased participation by adolescents and young people in spheres of interest to them; 6. Increased
youthparticipation in public affairs, including elections.
Tentative indicators
1. Absolute and relative number of government forums that have mechanisms for adolescents and young people, including those under
age 18, to participate in public decisions that affect them, taking into account the corresponding legal and institutional particulars and the
progressive development of children; 2. Percentage of adolescents andyoung people, including those under age 18, who have participated
in an instance of public policymaking, taking into account the corresponding legal and institutional particulars and the progressive
development of children; 3. Percentage of adolescents and young peoplewho consider that their country offers them adequate forums and
mechanisms for participation inpublic affairs; 4. Percentage of parliamentarians in the youth age group.
Related instruments,
forums andmechanisms
Ibero-American Convention on the Rights of Youth, article 21, “Youth Participation”; SDG target 16.7 Ensure responsive, inclusive,
participatory and representative decision-making at all levels.
Comments
1. Adolescents, especially those under age 18, must be considered as “young people”where there is no specificmention of this group, as
they face specific limitations in terms of their visibility and formal and political recognition; this is why those under 18 years of age are
mentioned explicitly in two indicators. National laws do set age limits for some types of participation, particularly in elections, but
participation can be channelled through other means. It is particularly important to include these inmeasurements concerning those aged
under 18, as they could be excluded from certain sorts of participation but still need opportunities to participate andways inwhich their
voices, and those of their organizations, can be heard. 2. The percentage of voters among young peoplemay be another useful indicator,
although itmay notmeanmuchwhen voting ismandatory andwhen there is no simple procedure to evade voting.With respect to forums
for participation, aswith all or nearly all the indicators for institutions or policies, verifying themwill require special information sources
(for example adhoc reports) and specific procedures (for rigorous and representative evaluationof sources).
