Youth with disabilities presented at the roundtable event on improving political participation which is inclusive and meaningful of children and youth with disabilities, ensuring they are not left behind in developing policies and influencing decision making which impacts their futures.
The roundtable event was a call for commitment to establish inclusive accessible spaces for children and youth with disabilities where their voices can be heard on matters impacting them and for their contributions and lived experiences to inform policy and programme development.
Both the UNCRPD article 7 and UNCRC article 12 state that State Parties should ensure children and young people’s views are sought on matters affecting them and that their views and contributions be given due weight, including in decisions affecting their lives.
The Pact for the Future refers to Youth and Future Generations recognizing youth as critical agents of positive change and mainly in Action 35 and Action 36 the importance of their inclusive youth meaningful participation and their contributions to peace and security, sustainable development and human rights.
Across the global community, children and youth with disabilities continue to face discrimination, exclusion, and underrepresentation. Their voices often remain unheard and disregarded, their visibility limited, and they continue to be systematically excluded from critical decision-making processes about their lives and futures.
Meaningful political participation of children and youth with disabilities will enhance government and non-government policy and programme development and responses and solutions to global challenges impacting children and youth with disabilities.
Youth with disabilities young leaders and advocates delivered powerful statements and insights on:
- Youth with disabilities lived experiences of the challenges and successes they have encountered to gain a seat to their political participation.
- The structural and systematic change shift to achieve disability inclusive children and youth with disabilities political participation.
- What the barriers and challenges that need to be removed to enable the meaningful political participation of children and youth with disabilities to be included in shaping policy development, strengthening the enjoyment of their civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights.
- Recognition to address the rights of minority and indigenous communities children & youth persons with disabilities and their political participation in advancing their disability rights and inclusion.
- How to ensure children and youth with disabilities perspectives and priorities are integrated into the broader agendas, their disability rights and inclusion mainstreamed and their meaning political participation and inclusion.
Shrutilata Singh (CCYDN / Sense India) shared why it’s important to not leave deafblind children and youth with disabilities behind in participating and advocating in political and civil spaces and to have their input in policy and programmes development.
Muna Shakya (NIDWAN) highlighted that as children and youth indigenous persons with disabilities their issues, concerned voices are rarely heard at disability, indigenous women’ & youth conventions. Most often their voices are unheard, they are left out without participation and their lived experiences and issues impacting them are not documented and therefore as a group they do not exist.
Sabina Moce (CCYDN Pacific Region Representative)
Inclusive decision-making processes must ensure that young people with disabilities are not merely consulted but fully integrated as co-creators of policies & programs that shape their futures. We must move beyond tokenistic representation & commit to systemic, structural reforms that enable genuine participation at all levels. True inclusion is not symbolic—it is transformational. The voices of youth and children with disabilities must be heard, empowered, & placed at the center of global progress’.
Hear directly from youth with disabilities what they had to say at the roundtable event in these videos
Sabina Moce
Commonwealth Children & Youth Disability Network (CCYDN) – Pacific Region
Shrutilata Singh
Commonwealth Children & Youth Disability Network (CCYDN) – Asia Region
Puneet Singhal
Global Network Young People with Disabilities
Muna Shakya
National Indigenous Disabled Women‘s Association Nepal
We welcome examples of good practices of the inclusive and meaningful political participation of children and youth with disabilities. You can email the team if you want to join or get involved with CCYDN and share good practices to cccydn@includemetoo.org.uk