The Political Participation of Youth

Committed, inspiring and bold climate leaders from all over the world will meet during the UN High-Level General Assembly week to discuss youth-led engagement and solutions in climate actions.

The Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC) is capacitating women across the country to contest in the forthcoming general elections under the programme Women Rise in Politics, with support from United Nations Women. 

Under the programme, the commission is hosting workshops for women interested in participating in politics to provide them with critical information to enable them to contest the male-dominated political space. 

Democratization is under pressure across the globe. Here are five major threats to democracy, and how to mitigate them.

Democracy is as precarious as it is precious. Some 25 years after the IPU issued its Universal Declaration on Democracy, its principles continue to be challenged and eroded by corruption, populism and autocracy. But there are other, more insidious threats to democracy that have become more apparent at this particular moment in world history. 

The women’s training programme, led by the national Electoral Management Body in cooperation with International IDEA, earned an Honorable Mention in the Gender Equality category in the first edition of the Global Network on Electoral Justice Awards for meeting the main criterion of contributing to a concrete and measurable increase in gender parity in public life.

“Authorities should support the voices of young activists more; instead of silencing or minimizing them, they should be used as platforms to empower, generate a change,” said Meskerem Geset Techane, a member of the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls.

Through roundtable discussions, capacity-building workshops, and seminars targeting women from across Sudan, UN Women Sudan empowers young women to learn skills in alliance-building and participation in political processes.

International IDEA Sudan’s programme celebrated the graduation of the first batch from the Young Women Democracy Academy (YWDA) on 9 August 2022. The event took place in the International IDEA office, and it was attended by the Swedish Ambassador to Sudan, Signe Burgstaller, who gave the opening remarks.  Members of the Sudanese civil society and academia and people of interest were also present at the event.

On this International Youth Day, the IPU congratulates all the young MPs making a mark in their respective parliaments. They are the future of democracy but with less than 3% of MPs under 30, young people remain severely under-represented. Increasing their ranks continues to be a major focus for the IPU.

I Say Yes to Youth in Parliament! campaign