A Convention on the Rights of Young People: good idea or bad idea? We investigate.

The rationale for a Convention on the Rights of Young People has been increasingly discussed within the youth rights discourse in Europe, questioning the possibility of binding and non-binding instruments to ensure that young people can adequately access their rights. In this article we summarise some arguments in favour and against a dedicated youth rights convention. What do you think, should there be a Convention on the Rights of Young People?

The arguments stem from a 2011 Youth Rights Symposium that aimed to highlight the current challenges for young people in accessing their rights, to review the existing framework for ensuring the rights of young people and to critically engage with the recent debates on the need to increase young people’s access to their rights. Read the full report of the symposium.

Overarching questions

Throughout and beyond the Youth Rights Symposium, the question of a youth rights convention has been debated across and beyond Europe, with several overarching questions emerging:

• Which rights are specific to young people?
• How do these rights differ from the rights of children protected by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the rights of adults protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights?
• Which existing youth rights are violated?
• Which necessary youth rights are missing?
• Which added value would a Youth Rights Convention offer? Which risks does it carry?
• How would a Youth Rights Convention relate to the youth rights discourse and movement?

Key arguments for a Youth Rights Convention

Key arguments for a Youth Rights Convention include:

• A convention would champion a rights-based approach to youth policy development and practice.
• Two regional youth rights conventions have already been developed and introduced.
• The challenges young people face are different from children’s and adults’ challenges.
• The existing instruments do not fully protect and promote the rights of young persons.
• Youth empowerment depends on others giving up power by free choice and with good will.
• Debating youth rights will allow young people to drive forward cultural and political change.
• The rights of young people remain unfulfilled across the globe, at least partly.
• Young people are disenfranchised culturally, politically and economically.
• Young people are not given spaces for meaningful political participation.
• The youth rights discourse is a way to negotiate power between generations.
• As long as laws treat young people differently, their rights need to be asserted.

Key arguments against a Youth Rights Convention

Key arguments against a Youth Rights Convention include:

• Research remains inconclusive about the need for an instrument to protect youth rights.
• There is not yet a specific set of rights proposed beyond the general demand for a convention.
• Youth might be marginalised as a group with a subset, and not the full panoply, of human rights.
• As a result of that marginalisation, the convention would undermine youth and human rights.
• A youth rights convention would inevitably overlap with other conventions and frameworks.
• A convention would need to detail different sets of rights for young persons up to, and above 18.
• It remains unclear how a balance between protection, provision and participation can be achieved.
• A youth rights convention will likely reinforce the struggle between children’s and youth policy.
• A youth rights convention would only accelerate the inflation of rights and not change much.
• The demand for a convention is based on needs of young people, not on their violated rights.
• A youth rights convention would contribute little to mobilising young people to use their rights.
• A convention providing young persons with meaningful rights would not be easily ratified.

Read the full report of the Youth Rights Symposium.