Representation that Matters: Enhancing Active Citizenships for Young People with Disabilities (COSP19 Side Event)

Dear attendances, I would like to welcome you all, both participants in the room and speakers in the panel.
I have been looking forward to this event for quite some time, and I expect that you will have some very interesting discussions and share important perspectives in the next hours.
How do we ensure active participation and representation of young people with disabilities in civic engagement and in public and political life? That's the question we will discuss and it is a question that is close to my heart.
When I was young or younger, I should say, I wanted to be a criminal because criminals, you don't feel sorry for.
When I was younger, people often addressed me on the beach, the playground, or other public places and told me that it must be very hard to be me.
People's intentions came from a good and loving place, but it also came from pity.
Pity because I am in a wheelchair.
In elementary and high school, most of the parties were in the weekends and they were held places with stairs so I couldn't join.
I was an outcast.
I wasn't a part of the group.
Instead, I found the community with other young people, people who like me, couldn't attend or wasn't invited to the parties.
People who were outcasts, the criminals on the bench, on the street corner.
With them, I found the community and recognition because we were all outsiders.
And in a strange way, suddenly, I was included.
For me, it is essential that people don't feel sorry for me.
And one of the ways to distance yourself from pity is to spend time with people you don't normally feel sorry for, like, for example, criminals.
On the bench with the other young outcasts, I met expectations and trust.
It is taken to the extreme.
I know, but it has truth in it.
We all need to be a part of a group.
After a few years, I ended up in deep depression and was granted what in Denmark is called early retirement.
Not because I wanted it.
I asked the municipality to help me find a job, but because the system said that I couldn't work, I got the early retirement.
I didn't feel that I had a place in the world.
Nobody needed me.
The life changing event for me was when I one day got a call from the Danish Association of Youth with Disabilities.
They wanted me to take a speaking course and the rest is history.
It's funny how life can turn around in a second when you suddenly meet trust and expectations from other people.
I was included through civic society where I met expectations, inclusion, and meaning.
That gave me the trust in myself to take an education, get a job, and become more and more active in our association of youth with disabilities.
You all know as well as I do that when you meet other people with expectations, and I promise you that this is even more true when we talk about young people with disabilities, they will grow.
Lack of expectations becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
There are a lot of different pathways for young people with disabilities, and we shall discuss them today.
But trust and a focus on skills and abilities is essential.
As well is the feeling of belonging.
My dream is to build a world based on universal design, where we see people's potentials and where we recognize that what is needed for some is beneficial for everyone.
Where our societal goal is to secure accessibility for everyone in all parts of life, education, work, social life, cultural life, civic society, and all the other arenas.
With these opening remarks, I will welcome you to this very important event, and I will now give the word to our first speaker, Margaret Slaughter, who is the Minister of Social Affairs and housing in the Faroe Islands.
Excellencies, distinguished delegates, colleagues and friends.
It is an honor to be here today on behalf of the Faroe Islands and Denmark, who together hold the presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers this year.
Together with the Nordic Council of Ministers and UNICEF, we are proud to host this side event on active citizenship for young people with disabilities.
Nordic cooperation allows us to learn from each other and create better solutions together.
This year marks 50 years of Nordic cooperation on disability.
It reminds us that progress happens when governments, organizations, and persons with disabilities work together.
This brings us to today's theme.
Active citizenship is not only about being present.
It is about being heard, being involved, and having real influence on the decisions that shape your own life and future.
This is especially important for children and young people with disabilities because if they are not included early, we risk creating systems and solutions without their perspectives.
In the Faroe Islands, we have recently strengthened this approach through the development of a New Children's Act.
In 2024, the UN CRPD Committee recommended that we involve children and young people with disabilities more closely in this work.
We listened.
During the consultation process, roughly 700 children and young people participated.
To ensure that children and young people with disabilities could participate, we used adapt workshops, smaller groups, and more flexible forms of dialogue.
This matters because participation does not happen by itself.
Public authorities have a responsibility to create spaces where all young people can participate safely, equally, and meaningfully.
At the same time, we know that good practices alone are not enough.
Participation must become a more natural and systematic part of how we develop laws, services, and policies from the very beginning.
That is exactly why today's discussion is so important.
I look forward to listening, learning, and continuing this conversation together with you all and especially the young voices joining us today.
Thank you.
Thank you, Market.
Now we have the pleasure of two keynote speakers who will tell us about the right to and the importance of an active citizenship and participation of young people with disabilities.
Our first keynote speaker, UN Special Reporter on the rights of persons with disabilities, Hiba Haras.
Good evening, everybody.
Excellency, distinguished delegates, colleagues and friends.
I would like to begin by thanking the government of Denmark, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland, and the Nordic Council of Ministers for convening this important side event.
I also warmly acknowledge the policymakers, experts, and especially the young people with disabilities joining us today.
Your presence here matters.
Active citizenship is not a privilege, it is a right.
For young people with disabilities, it is essential.
As special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, I am guided by a clear principle.
Young people with disabilities are right holders, agents of change, and leaders, not passive recipients of protection.
This principle is firmly anchored in both the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Convention of the Rights of the Child.
Article 29 of the CRPD and Article 12 in the CRC affirm the right of children and youth with disabilities to participate fully and effectively in public life and in all decision making affecting them.
Yet, in my work, I continue to see a significant gap between these commitments and reality.
Young people with disabilities remain underrepresented in civil society, public debates, and political decision making, not due to lack of capacity or interest, but because of persistent barriers.
Inaccessible environment and information, stigma, low expectation, and systems that speaks about them rather than wisdom.
All this leads to their being uninterested or being called incapable of.
Meaningful participation is not symbolic, it is influence.
It requires accessible space, inclusive education, disability, inclusive use policies, and sustained support for organizations of persons with disabilities.
Under Article 29B of the CRPD, states have a positive obligation to actively create environments where participation is possible, safe, and effective.
The question is not whether young people with disabilities are ready to participate.
They are.
The question is whether our institutions are ready to change.
Democracy is stronger when everyone belongs.
Representation matters, and when young people with disabilities are involved as equal actors, society as a whole benefits.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you to Heba.
Now we go to our next keynote speaker of this evening.
Let's give a welcome to UNICEF's global Lead on Disability, Gopal Mitra.
Thank you so much Chair.
Excellencies, distinguished delegates, colleagues, young friends.
It's an honor for UNICEF to be co hosting this event along with our esteemed partners, the Nordic Council of Ministers, Denmark, Faroe Islands, and other partners.
We have come here to discuss how the rights embodied in different conventions, including the CRPD, the CRC, are not symbolic, how they can be actually translated into change.
The special report here before me just now have outlined what the CRPD says, Article 29, Article 12 of the CRC.
Article 23 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child also specifically recognizes the right to active participation of children with disabilities in their communities.
Together, these conventions make it clear that children and young people with disabilities need only protection.
It goes much beyond that.
They make it clear that groups have the right to influence the communities, the decisions and shape the communities they live in.
But it is also true that this is not the reality.
The barriers are clear.
Accessibility, stigma, gatekeeping, We are not often comfortable to allow to open these spaces.
Accessibility, for example, we have the best technology that humankind has ever had.
So there is no reason for us not to have accessibility.
The costs are going down.
It's a matter of will and implementing it.
It's a matter of trusting young people and opening up the spaces.
At UNICEF, we are trying hard to ensure that children, young people with disabilities shape the work that we do.
Our disability inclusion policy and strategy, the organization wide policy and strategy has been shaped by young people and not only that, they participate often in the UNICEF executive board to point out how the implementation is happening and to be briefed about it.
When we have seen by our experience when young people are involved in these discussions, we listen to young people, the outcomes are much better.
I would like to refer to a young advocate of Unicef Ray from the Philippines.
Ray has helped us shape our guidelines on participation of children and recently has carried out an accessibility audit of the subway system in Manila.
Last week, he was speaking at the Ecosox forum here and he pointed out that don't consult us without meaning.
Please be accountable.
Don't ask for our views just for your reports and to tick a box that you have consulted.
Tell us what you have done with our suggestions, what actions have been taken, what things are working, what is not? Because by telling us, you will demonstrate respect and we deserve the respect.
Young people, advocates, activists like Ray, tell us that it's time that we stop treating or considering participation as a tokenistic exercise.
It's a collective responsibility to listen, to create spaces, and to take action and give the feedback to young people with disabilities what has happened.
It is then we'll start living up to the promise of the CRPD of dismantling discrimination for persons with disabilities.
Thank you.
Thank you too.
Now in the following sessions, we will see some examples of promising practices.
First from Norway, the Minister of Culture and equality, Lubner Jeffrey.
Your Excellency's, distinguished delegates, dear colleagues, I'm honored to speak at this side event raising the important issue of representation for youth with disabilities.
Norway vision is a society where we can all participate on equal terms.
It is about ensuring that everyone has a real voice in how their communities and our societies are shaped.
It is a safeguard for democracy.
However, full participation does not happen by itself.
It requires measures, concrete action.
To ensure meaningful participation and real influence at local and regional levels, all municipalities and counties in Norway are required to establish council for persons with disabilities alongside youth councils.
These statutory councils provide functioning and accessible channels into decision making and public debates.
Our experience shows that participation is most effective when it is accessible, well supported, linked to real influence.
These councils ensure this.
To strengthen the implementation of the CRPD, we are supporting initiatives that build competence on the convention with them.
Voting is another key element of participation.
To strengthen the right to vote independently, persons with disabilities in Norway may bring an assistant of the choice into the voting booth.
We also work actively to reach underrepresented groups, including young people with cognitive disabilities through tailored information and right based outreach.
The New Election Act strengthens these efforts by placing clear requirements on accessibility, information, and independent voting, helping to remove practical barriers and ensure equal participation.
Dialogue and involvement are essential.
Civil society organizations, including youth organizations, bring valuable knowledge that improve our policies.
They bring their own lived lives.
Such close dialogue strengthens both equality and legitimacy of our decisions.
When young persons with disabilities are included as active right holders and contributors, they strengthen both democratic practice and public policy.
Norway remains committed to promoting accessible and meaningful participation.
We remain committed to working with others to ensure these principles are put into practice.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Now from Iceland, the Minister of Social Affairs and Housing, Ragpar Boy Ingelson.
Thank you.
Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, representatives of Organization of Persons with Disabilities.
On behalf of the government of Iceland, I'm pleased to join you here today and to contribute to this important discussion.
I would like to share with you three examples from Iceland that promote the active participation of young persons with disabilities in the society.
First, we have made the participation of persons with disabilities fundamental component of policy making and the implementation of disability policies.
This is reflected in legislation as well as in our National Action Plan on Disability Affairs, which supports the implementation of the convention.
Through consultation and collaboration, we work to ensure that policies are always informed by the experience and perspective of those they affect.
Second, Iceland's Act on Integrated Services for the prosperity of children aims to ensure that children and young people receive coordinated support across different systems and sectors.
For young persons with disabilities, this means better opportunities to participate in education, leisure activities, and in society as a whole.
The objective is to strengthen the position of children and young people as active participants in their own lives.
Third, we consider strong organization of persons with disabilities to be one of the key foundation for active participation in the society.
These organization provide a platform where young persons with disabilities can advocate for their own rights, engage in public debate, and influence policymaking.
Through consultation with the government, through committees, projects, and advocacy work, young people gain valuable experience in expressing their views and contribute to the development of their society.
In this way, these organizations are not only as sources of support, but also as schools of democratic participation and leadership.
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities reminds us that participation is a human right.
Our responsibility is to create the condition that enable young persons with disabilities to participate as active, visible, and influential members of society.
When their perspectives influence decision making, society becomes more inclusive, more just and more democratic.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Now, the Executive Director of Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations, Peter Ana Audi Kouassi.
Patients.
When we speak about active citizenship for young people with disabilities, for us in Ghana and for that matter, the Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations, it is not theoretical, it is personal.
It is visible in the everyday experiences of young people who continue to demand space, visibility, and the right to shape their communities.
Less than a month ago, as an executive director of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations, I visited some of our focus district and a young woman with physical disability from Norden Ghana I met told the team that and she said, I have been invited to meetings, community meetings, but I've never been invited to speak.
She has been in the community meetings for years, but never truly included.
And her story Actually, reflect a reality many young people with disabilities know well, not exclusion by absent alone, but exclusion within present.
So at GFD one promising practice we have been creating intentionally creating for young people is training leaders, giving them spaces where youth with disabilities are not participant alone, but organizers, facilitators, advocates, and decision makers.
True youth led advocacy initiatives, mentorship and movement building.
We have seen young people engage directly in the things that affect them at the district assemblies and also politics at their local level, and then policies discussions and advocate directly on issues affecting education, employment, accessibility, and political participation.
We have youth committee who meet regularly to discuss matters that affect their lives.
Currently, we've met consciously to make sure that the Ghana Federation of Disabilities Constitution clearly have a youth representation at all levels of its structure.
I'm talking about the national, regional, and district levels of the organization.
A second lesson we have learned is that power of partnership beyond disability movement.
Active citizenship grows when disability inclusion is seen as everyone's responsibilities.
We have worked with civil society organizations, government agencies, training institutions, and I Development partners to ensure young people with disabilities are included in civic education, digital skills, entrepreneurship, and leadership programs, not as an afterthought, but from the beginning.
We all know that inclusion works best when it is designed into the system.
The third thing is that sustaining partnership requires more than an opportunity.
It requires support.
Many young people we know face barriers such as inaccessible transport, I lack of information in accessible format, stigma, limited resources, participation becomes possible when these barriers are addressed.
Sometimes it is sign language interpretation, sometimes accessible transport, sometimes mentorship, and sometimes simply someone saying, your voice belong here.
Across Ghana, we have seen generations young persons with disabilities are facing.
So our duty here is to support them, to make sure that they are able to be part of the work and the things that we do.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
And now, what are the barriers and what can be done to enhance, support, and promote the active citizenship of young people with disabilities? That is the overall question that we will talk about now in the next session.
That is a youth panel discussion.
First, I will represent their tendencies in the panel, and then we will go to the questions.
First, we have Eda Welding, Chairman of Young OB Then we have Clara Aslan, chair of the Swedish National Organization of Young Romantics.
Then we have Nina Reinhard Simonsen, youth representative from the Faroes Disability Organization.
Then we have Bilcani De Silva, youth representative from Sri Lanka, Noda Suleimani, Norway's youth delegate to the UN and representative of Norwegian Children and Youth Council.
And last, Siri Esper, Head of Public Affairs in Disabled youth, Norway.
But first, I will go to you, Lisi, and ask you a couple of questions.
So you have told me that you are a teacher on a daily.
Tell me a bit about that.
From my small days.
I had a dream to become a teacher someday.
Now my wish has come true.
Now I'm teaching my own school, Richard's College for the last seven years, and I am proud to be a teacher.
I teach across to grade two and three for the according to the E&E lessons.
When I teach them handwork, I always say then be creative and I felt happy when they create their own handwork.
Thank you.
Thank you.
It's very interesting to hear about.
But how was it when you went to school, elementary school, did you feel included? Yes, I felt included.
As my school included me in all activities, in all activities like marsh paths, concerts, and they also arranged the classroom for me, easy.
My teachers very helpful and encouraged me and for me to save my exams, my friends were always there for me.
They always supported me, encouraged me, I me as their friend.
Even now, we are still friends.
We always go out together.
Nice.
That's an example of what can be done when inclusion is achieved.
Let me ask you, finally, Sy, it's a more general question.
How would you like the world to see us as young people with disabilities? I would like the world to treat us when dignity and respect and to include us in sorry, in whatever they do.
Give us a chance to do a jobs that we like to do like the way my friends did.
And like the way must school did to be a friend for us, like my friends did.
Thank you very much.
Now I will go to the next question, which is, what are the barriers and what is needed to develop strengthened pathways to participation in public, political, and civic engagement for young people with disabilities, especially young people with disabilities who are not used to participate in these areas.
So now let's have a panel discussion about this question.
Can we start with you, Siri? What do you think about this question? You other guys can just signal if you want to say something specifically.
Yes, of course, you can start with me.
I think I will bring up some of the social barriers that young people with disabilities face.
In 2021, we had a project about participation in political and civil organizations.
Our experience is that young people with invisible disabilities, they have a fear of not being believed when they inform about disability or their need for accommodations.
Whereas young people with visible disabilities, they experience underestimating that others underestimate their abilities.
We also found that nearly 20% of the participants have stopped engaging in political activities due to discrimination or harassment.
That are some of the social barriers, and I think other participants in the panel will talk about some of the physical barriers also for participation, but it was also mentioned from the representative from Ghana.
Thank you very much.
I know that you, Nora, is also talking about lack of expectations when it comes to being young with disability in society.
What do you think are the barriers and what is needed to develop society as a whole? You have to turn yes.
Now, I think it's on now.
Now you can hear me.
Yes.
Actually, I I had the honor of giving the main statement together with our minister.
I opened my statement like this.
Growing up with only 5% vision has taught me that disability does not limit my potential, barriers do.
And we do talk, rightfully so a lot about the physical barriers, which are inclusive societies accessibility and accessibility is incredibly important because it's not a charity.
It shouldn't be seen as charity.
It is a democratic requirement.
But another barrier that I've seen not been talking a lot about is low expectations.
We are expected to maybe go to school, eat, sleep, survive, and that's it.
We are expected to survive.
Often, active participation becomes a luxury.
And there's no lack of engagement or ambition on our side, but we have the voices, there are systems that has to listen to us.
This is something we have to do something about, especially in an increasingly digital world where new forms of exclusion, with AI, with digital platforms are coming into life.
We need to be part of uh, forming the solutions and, um, how to shape and more inclusive societies, a society who is going to also be more democratic and sustainable in the long run.
Um, and what is important is that we don't only, as Mr.
Go Palmitra here said that not only to expect protection, but also not only do the bare minimum, but actually invest in young people with disabilities because we are discriminated for being young and we are discriminated for having a disability as well.
So Yeah.
Thank you.
A lot.
The keyword here, I think is investments.
What about you, Nina, what do you think are the barriers? In the Faroe Islands, we are very small country located in the middle of the Atlantic ocean with only 55,000 people.
I think that our biggest barrier is that we don't have youth organizations or we don't have a strong tradition with youth organizations.
Most of the organizations they are aimed at adults, these environments tend to be more suitable for adults than for younger people.
Or for older people than for younger people.
I believe that creating youth organizations or youth groups within the organization and building spaces where young people feel welcome and included is a key for increasing their engagement.
Encouragingly, this is something that the Faroes disabilities organization is currently working on.
The best way to achieve this in my view is through democratic planning and co creation.
Where young people are actively involved in shaping the initiatives and making the decisions.
Because when young people have a genuine voice and influence, they're more likely to engage and feel ownership of the process.
Thank you very much.
Clara, you come from a disability organization.
What do you think are the barriers and what can we do about them? Yes.
Well, I think the barriers are plentiful and diverse.
I think that this is a broad issue that faces a very broad group.
I'm a representative from an umbrella organization and we collect 12 youth organizations, which all are very varied.
I think people face a lot of different things.
Something that I've seen that is ongoing and a red thread that runs through it is economics, how young people faces difficulties entering both higher education but also the work market, how people don't get access to aid, support, or information in a way which is adapted or maybe it's not available at all, it's not being created, it's not there.
Young people with disabilities faces many issues, but I think economics and accessibility is at the core of it.
If you can't enter society, how are you then able to even take part of it? You can't enter higher education.
Maybe you can't even enter basic education in a way which is available.
How are you then supposed to get access to any part of society? How are you then supposed to be able to go vote, participate in social life, do you participate in digital spaces? There's so many obstacles that it's slowly added on throughout your life.
But I think that when we look at the economic part of it, we can really see a red thread, how hard it is for people to work, to be in education, to participate in any form of social life because of the continuous obstacles that we face.
It's important to note that those are systematic.
That is not something that just exists, that is created, and it is upheld by our society and by our government.
I believe that through active participation from youth, through perhaps youth organizations, but also active members, we can start to create the solutions there.
But I think economics, if we start looking there, we can see a very clear path.
Perhaps that can be the beginning of how to unravel the huge part of obstacles that we face.
Thank you.
Let me ask you, Edward, what do you think we can do about participation to create more active participation? What are the barriers and what can we do about it? Yeah.
Thank you.
The problem we have seen in Iceland, we are also a small country, but it's like everybody knows each other, it's a little bit easier to reach young people with disabilities.
My organization is my youth organization is quite young.
But the uh The problem I have seen is both there is there are like stigmas and prejudices around disabilities in society and youth with disabilities.
And that also happens that youth with disabilities, they are quite reluctant of participating in youth work because they they have prejudices themselves against disabilities and they're scared about they don't want to be an advocate for disabilities because how it would reflect on amongst society.
But then then we must take action to ensure that the youth with disabilities have safe space to express their opinions.
They get the training in self advocacy.
And I also think that this side that went here and all the great young advocates here in this panel with me, we are making a difference with speaking about disabilities and speaking about importance of participation because then some young people there may be with us here today or watching in the livestream, they're like, Yeah, okay.
It's fantastic what they are doing and I should also, then they get involved in their organizations.
Then we create we create a strong youth movement of youth with disabilities that changes the world step by step.
I think that's fantastic.
Yes.
Thank you very much.
I think the part about the internal barriers are quite interesting as well.
In Denmark, we talk a lot about, you can call them internal barriers.
You can call them barriers on the inside.
But they develop over time when children and young people with disabilities again and again and again should tell about their needs and their needs of accommodation instead of talking about their skills and their dreams of life.
Suddenly, when they are 20-years-old to 25-years-old and trying to sell themselves to a labor market, it can be very hard to switch the focus in communicating your skills instead of communicating your needs.
I think some of that barrier comes from prejudice.
Id, I think you created a very good segue to the next question.
So maybe you would like to answer that question as well.
The question is, How can political and civil society organizations not working with the disability field strengthen their inclusion of perspectives, involvement and participation of young people with disabilities? What can the outside world do to create more participation? Thank you.
I think we as a society must we must agree on that every single matter of society has a perspective of persons with disabilities.
We need to we need to let that perspective be heard at every single stage and in every single matter in society.
There is no such thing as a disability matter and then a non disability matter.
It's all a community matter and all community matters are also disability matters and our perspectives must be heard, especially the youth perspective, needs to be heard all of the time with active dialogue between the disability organizations and organizations not focused on disability because then we can learn so much from each other.
Then we can both broaden our horizons and with that dialogue, we can create an inclusive youth organizations, inclusive society and more inclusive world.
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you.
Disability is not a static situation.
In Denmark, we have a scientist who says that there are two groups of people in this world.
There are people with disabilities and there are people who will someday get disabilities.
Our perspectives are essential for everyone.
Siri, what do you think about the question? What can the outside world do? I think that the outside world needs to realize, as I was saying that disability related matters aren't just its own field.
It's included in every part of society, and we need to ensure involvement and participation from all groups of society, both from young people with disabilities but also from other minority groups to ensure and build sustainable and more equal societies.
That's the only way to build a sustainable society.
I also think that youth obetes they are an important way for children and young people with disabilities to engage in civic and political life, both in youth obetes but also youth obetes can be the way to participate in other parts of civil society organizations.
We also have to or in Norway, we see that a organizations not working within the disability field, they have some barriers when they want to include young people with disabilities.
We have to acknowledge that there are some barriers in those organizations as well because they have a fear of not knowing enough about disability or not knowing enough about accessibility, saying the wrong things or not using the correct language.
We see that we need to talk to them and we need to learn and we need someone to increase their knowledge about disabilities and instead of just saying that it's everyone who will do mistakes and you shouldn't be afraid of doing mistakes, we need to lower the barrier that they are facing so that they can be more sure when they are trying to include young people with disabilities and they can also see that it doesn't necessarily require a lot of extra work or extra costs as we see that the most frequent barrier is lack of information and being invited to participate and that is quite easy to solve actually.
Now, what do you think about the question, how can political and civil society organization not working within the field strengthen their view on inclusion of perspectives? I agree with your statement about two types of people.
I do say this also a lot that disability affects everyone at some time, whether permanently or temporarily.
This issue does concern us all and I totally agree with ID as well that it is a community issue and we should take it seriously in all aspects of life.
I'm incredibly lucky to have friends who happen to have different disabilities and are engaged in different parts of the society, in sports, in culture, in human rights, in art, in everything.
This just shows that our community is incredibly diverse and this is why we should be invited and included in shaping all parts of the society as well.
Yes.
Yes.
And I As said earlier, young people with disabilities have perspectives and insights that are essential for developing our society, not only for young people with disabilities, but for everybody.
The engagement is essential for developing our society.
But what do we do when people are engaged and involved? What can we do to sustain their participation? Maybe Nina wants to answer this question.
Yes.
Yeah, I think that one of the keys to sustain participation is to move beyond traditional approaches and to give young people real ownership and a genuine voice.
Because if young people only participate in initiatives and activities that others shape for them, then it can be difficult to keep them engaged over time.
But when young people help to create initiatives and to lead them, they become much more invested.
I brought a very good example with me from Faroe Islands.
This is a poetry collection called Of Chingam in English, our poetry collection.
This was a project created a by young people for young people.
They wrote the poems and edited the collection and raised the fundings and they created artwork in it and they managed the whole project from start to the end.
The collection also includes introductions and photographs of the contributors.
Allowing them to present themselves and to share their own stories and perspectives.
For me, what is important about this project is not only the final product, but it's the process behind it, because it gave young people a platform to express themselves and to develop skills and take responsibility and see that their voices really matter.
It also gave them visibility and representation in the wider community.
So I think this is a very important lesson.
If you give us young people the real or the right opportunities, then we are often incredibly creative and motivated and idealistic.
We bring new perspectives and ideas.
By creating spaces where young people can contribute meaningfully and see tangible wrestles from our efforts, then we build a sense of ownership and empowerment and belonging.
And that in my view, is the most effective ways to sustain long term participation.
Yeah.
Thank you very much.
That actually is a key example of insightful perspectives from young people with disabilities.
In 3 minutes, it will be possible for the audience to come with questions and comments, so embrace yourselves.
First, we will continue with this question and I will ask you, Clara, what can be done to sustain participation once it's achieved? I believe no one likes to be involved just to be involved.
We like to see results and we like to see clarity.
Being involved in the end used to put the stamp on something, it's not true involvement.
I believe in order to have young people being involved and keeping involved, we need to be involved at the right time.
Perhaps at the start, perhaps at the middle, but somewhere where our voices and our experience can make a true difference.
Then we need to communicate clearly around that.
Where does our voices fit? Where does our experience come to use, and how do they play out in the following project.
Then we need to repeat that again and again and again and we need to let it grow organically.
I believe that in the point where we first are involved, that's the starting point.
But there are so many other spaces and projects and situations in society within the government where our voices are not yet taken place, where we can be used.
We need to create a flexible system where young people can let all voices grow, where we can be involved with our government, with our ruling bodies in order to create long lasting change.
We need to create that system and we can do that today, I believe.
I'm sure we can.
I feel very motivated right now for change.
Siri, what do you think can be done to sustain participation? Yes.
Firstly, I agree with what has been said.
I also think that we need to be really aware of that involvement from youth and young adults often requires other types of structure and training than involvement from adults.
And So being young is limited to a few years and therefore the turnover is really high, and you always need new youth that needs to learn how to engage.
And also many political processes, they take years from start to finish, and we all know how much that can change in a young person's life from the age of 19 to the age of 25.
So to have sustainable participation, that does also mean that we need to have flexibility to ensure participation and involvement throughout the whole process.
And I also think it's important to mention that sometimes we need to talk about the participation fatigue, meaning that there are the same young people who participate in everything.
And that is great that we need young people to participate, but if we have the same people over and over again, they might get exhausted and we also don't hear a broad representation of young voices uh and to reduce the participation fatigue, we need sustainable funding to youth Obs to reduce the need of project funding and to ensure sustainable structures within the youth OBDes that promotes a broad representation and participation.
Thank you very much.
We have the first question from the audience, which is from Shanna Malamed from the organization, Autism Without a voice.
So where are you, Shanna? Maybe she's disappeared.
She will maybe come back.
So does anyone else have a question? Yes.
Yeah.
I cannot see her name, but take the scene.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
My name is Gel Vito.
I am the spokesperson of the youth led DPO based in France, 100% at.
I was very inspired by all of your talks.
We are facing the same difficulties regarding participation of young persons with disabilities in France.
We recently conducted a study with more than 700 young persons with disabilities and they told us that for 60% of them, they consider that society doesn't allow for the participation of persons with disabilities and 40% of them think that they are never taken into account in policy making.
We are trained to advocate against these observations, especially.
We are really in favor of having our public consultation, especially towards youth accessible and as it was mentioned in town hall, the participation of young persons with disabilities among young councils.
I wanted to know if you have more information from your youth led DPOs on this participation, especially regarding elections or especially regarding the consultation of young persons with disabilities and how the governments are made accountable.
Thank you.
Thank you too.
Does any of you want to comment or answer? I see you taking notes, Siri.
Do you want to say something? Yes, I thank you for your question.
I can try to answer some parts of it.
I also come from an umbrella organization, so I think maybe youth participation or youth involvement will vary from country to country.
But in Norway, my organization is often invited to, um, say our meaning and talk in both disability related matters, but we also try to follow the processes that are not disability related specifically to ensure that disability is being included in these processes.
Also when it comes to election, um, In Norway, we had the election last year in 2025, and as Lubna said earlier, we have a new election law that has some rules for universally accessible voting booths, but still there are over 200 election boots that were not accessible in the last election, that means over one in ten in Norway.
We're trying to both increase the participation of young people voting, um, We also get or reapplied for funding to have a project to increase the participation in voting.
But unfortunately, the result it hasn't increased a lot from the election in 2021.
Um, we also still see that even though they are to the government is trying to increase youth participation, I think some of the problem is that the election boots aren't universally accessible for everyone, so we need to upgrade the elementary schools to get to the standard of universal design for everyone to actually be able to participate.
Yes.
I don't know if that was a good answer for your question, but it's something.
What about you, Lara? Quite recently had a project regarding voting.
This is actually election year in Sweden, so there will be a big election in September where my organization or the umbrella organization I represent was involved in trying to give comments on accessibility for voting booths and buildings where they take place.
But we share a similar problem as Norway does that even though we have been involved all the buildings are not accessible and the process getting to the buildings to vote is also not accessible.
It's very hard to get guidance or to used to get there is a hassle and this is an ongoing problem and we will see a little bit how it goes in September.
It's something that we are working on, but perhaps not to the amount that we need.
Regarding youth participation within this diss government, there is a law that the groups which will be affected by the law, the process has to be involved when You're dictating it.
We are involved in quite a lot of the process.
But I want to connect something with Siri that it's usually the same people again and again and again.
I'm in a lot of those meetings and so are my friends.
There is not a system surrounding that which makes it accessible to participate.
It's the meetings are in Stockholm, daytime and you usually don't get paid.
You have to take time off work or time of school.
It's an accessible process.
Now, I do not believe the government is held accountable if we do not show up.
I think that's on us to show up, unfortunately.
Unfortunately, yes.
And unfortunately, we are running out of time.
I would love to keep this conversation going forever and ever, but I have to do my closing remarks now.
So I would like to thank you all for a very, very interesting, inspiring and motivating conversation.
I think that it is very clear that we need to create more inclusion in our society.
Not because we need it as young people with disabilities, but because everyone's survival is dependent on inclusion in the everyday society.
I think it's very, very, very clear what needs to be done and who needs to be included in the policy making and the different matters of society I said earlier, I feel very, very motivated for change.
I hope you do too, and I hope you all go out in the world today, tomorrow, and forever and do your best to create inclusion in our society.
That's the way we create sustainability in a social perspective, not for the survival of young people with disabilities, but for the survival of everyone.
Thank you very much.
Thank