Manifesto for increasing youth political participation in Romania
About Manifesto
The CTR Manifesto for Increasing Youth Political Participation is an approach aimed at creating an X-ray of the political participation of young people in Romania, as well as directions for action, objectives and measures to improve it through a transparent and participatory process.
It all started on 12 August 2022, when we launched the initial version of the Manifesto and opened this broad and collaborative process, which invites young people, NGOs, policy makers, representatives of academia, private sector and media institutions, key actors of democracy and youth political participation, to work together to develop a more meaningful involvement of young people in public life.
This campaign came as a response to the need to combat democratic decline, lack of mutual trust between young people and state institutions, Euroscepticism and lack of effective mechanisms and practices to ensure real participation of young people in all decision-making processes. Our initiative has proved all the more relevant in the historical context of the year 2024, when almost half of the world’s voters are called to the polls, and for the first time we have all 4 rounds of elections in the same year in Romania.
To bring this even closer to the community, we launched the Youth Political Participation Ambassadors Programme on 2 May 2023 as part of the Manifesto. Together, they contribute to the common European efforts to combat democratic decline by being part of the Council of Europe’s democracy revitalisation campaign “Democracy Here | Democracy Now”.
What do we propose through the Manifesto?
- Increasing electoral participation and political representation of young people
- Meaningful participation of young people in all decision-making processes and in the development of public policies
- Training young people in the spirit of active participation in democratic life and the cultivation of European values
- Recognising the importance of youth NGOs and civil society in youth participation and strengthening democracy
- Developing public policies that support youth participation, created and implemented through a participatory process, together with young people