Advisory Council on Youth

Today is International Day of Democracy.

Earlier this year, 120 young people presented an ambitious vision for democracy in 2049. However, current trends of democratic backsliding and polycrisis point in the opposite direction.
To improve the Health of our democracies for everyone, the manifesto highlights several necessary commitments including:
•The access to social rights as a prerequisit for democratic security

•Calls for truly representative democracy and democratic accountability for all

•The need for increased dialogue and power-sharing between social groups, including with Young people, in decision making

•Increased people centrerd and local initiatives

•The access to information, education and participation

Democracy means participation, equality, solidarity, but fundamentally it means to have the freedom to voice your opinions in complete alignment with Human Rights and without fear of reprisals. And current developments painfully remind us that democracy, all over the world, is in peril and cannot be taken for granted.

As young people continue to innovate, organise, protest and dream of a better future, we still believe that democracy is worth fighting for rather than abandoning. But it requires ambitious action and political courage.

Therefore, we stand in solidarity with the young people whose trust in a democratic future is currently being crushed by repression and systematic dismantling of institutions.

You can read the full manifesto at the youth site within the website of the CoE