From 5-7 July, representatives of civil society and youth organisations, governments and local authorities from over 15 countries met at the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg to discuss dissemination and implementation of the Council of Europe Recommendation on young people’s access to rights.

Participants familiarised themselves with the Recommendation, adopted by the Committee of Ministers in September 2016. A mapping of barriers for young people’s access to rights was carried out, while participants shared initiatives, projects and practices they are leading to improve access to rights.

Participants developed guidelines for youth organisations and governments to work together on mapping obstacles for young people’s access to rights, proposing measures to address the issues as well as monitoring and evaluating progress. Furthermore, they developed a provisional set of indicators to assess young people’s access to rights.

The work carried out by participants in Strasbourg this week will set the groundwork for monitoring and evaluation of Member States’ implementation, ahead of 2022 when Member States will examine follow-up to the Recommendation. The results of the Seminar will be communicated and disseminated by the Council of Europe later this year.

The European Youth Forum participated and was involved in organising the Seminar. We are highly committed to the implementation of the Recommendation on young people’s access to rights. We will continue to work with partners and relevant stakeholders within and beyond the Council of Europe so that the Recommendation can improve the lives of young people.

The full text of the Council of Europe Recommendation on young people’s access to rights is available here.