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Back Youth Participation

Letter: Y

Synonym:

Youth Participation - The 2003 Council of Europe’s “Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life”, states that “participation in the democratic life of any community is about more than voting or standing for election, although these are important elements. Participation and active citizenship is about having the right, the means, the space and the opportunity and where necessary the support to participate in and influence decisions and engaging in actions and activities so as to contribute to building a better society.”

Furthermore, two dimensions of participation can be distinguished:

Direct participation where political decisions are influenced directly and structural links to political decision-making processes are enabled.

Indirect forms of participation reach out to citizens and encourage them to support certain issues and positions, also enabling discussions, opinion-building as well as campaigning.

According to Salto Participation and Information Erasmus+ Resource Centre, youth participation is about individual young people and groups of young people having the right, the means, the space and the opportunity and support to:

a.     freely express their views

b.     contribute to and influence societal decision-making on matters affecting them and

c.      be active within the democratic and civic life of our communities

REF: Pleyers, G; Karbach, N. (2014): Analytical paper on Youth Participation-Young people political participation in Europe: What do we mean by participation? EU-Council of Europe youth partnership.

Salto – PI Think Tank on Participation

See also: Citizen; citizenship; civil society; co-management; e-participation; participation; participation – models; participation – ladders; political participation; young people; youth participation