The review process aims to identify how the Recommendation has impacted on youth policy-making and on young people’s access to rights in member states (including in and through the activities of youth organisations and other stakeholders). This process will combine various sources of information and will be based on dialogue aiming to exchange experiences and examples of good practices. The process should also have a transparent and consistent youth participation dimension. The guidelines for the implementation of the Recommendation, outline the key approaches for conducting the review process.

THE RECOMMENDATION

The Council of Europe youth sector aims at enabling young people across Europe to actively uphold, defend, promote and benefit from the Council of Europe’s core values of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, notably by strengthening young people’s access to rights, deepening knowledge about youth and broadening youth participation.

The Committee of Ministers adopted in 2016 the Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)7 on Young People’s Access to Rights to improve young people’s access to rights by taking steps to promote awareness of the rights that young people should be able to enjoy and what they can do if their rights are violated, and by removing legal, political and social barriers. The Recommendation recognises the unhindered and full access of young people to rights as an essential element of a culture of human rights, democracy and rule of law. It stresses that young people are entitled to fully enjoy human and all other rights under national and international law, except where justified legal exceptions are made for the protection of minors.

In the Recommendation, the Committee of Ministers also “agrees to examine the follow-up given by member States to this Recommendation five years after its adoption”. This means that the Recommendation will be reviewed in 2021.

At national or local level

The guidelines propose that public authorities and youth organisations, in a process of open dialogue, should agree on a set of monitoring and evaluation indicators to be used at national, regional or local levels. Disaggregated data should be analysed systematically in order to identify the impact on young people with fewer opportunities. Furthermore, a mechanism or process to review and evaluate young people’s access to rights should be set up at local, regional or national level. Depending on the context, this review mechanism should meet every two to three years. The mechanisms could also analyse the impact on young people of new or updated legislation or policies.

For youth organisations working both locally, nationally and on international level, it is encouraged to create coalitions with different stakeholders who research and review policy implementation, such as researchers from the youth, human rights and legal fields. Furthermore, the guidelines propose developing of standard surveys to review implementation of the Recommendation and use these surveys as a basis for the review process.

At Council of Europe level

The guidelines propose that the Council of Europe gathers information and feedback both from the public authorities and from youth organisations, and produces a synthesised report based on the research and surveys available. This synthesised report should be used as a basis to identify potential implementation gaps.

Thematic focus of the review

According to the guidelines the first review should focus on:

  • Addressing discriminatory practices faced by young people on the grounds explicitly outlined in Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights or any other form identified in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (article I. of the Recommendation);
  • Removing legal, administrative and practical obstacles to the right of young people to assemble peacefully and to freely form, join and be active in associations and trade unions (article I. of the Recommendation).

The Monitoring group

The Monitoring group for the 2021 review of the Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)7 brings together a group of experts with the following profiles:

  • Representatives of Advisory Council on Youth and the European Steering Committee for Youth;
  • European Youth Forum
  • Consultants from the Pool of European Youth Researchers
  • Council of Europe secretariat

The monitoring group’s role is to guide the process of data collection, research, review of the conclusions and final outcomes from the process. The monitoring group will present the outcomes of this process to the Joint Council on Youth on the meeting in October 2021.

 

Consultative meeting to prepare the review

In order to prepare the process of review of the implementation of the Recommendation, the Youth Department organised a consultative meeting with the various target groups and stakeholders in October 2021.

 The consultative meeting concluded with a proposal for the approaches, measures and calendar for the review of the implementation of the Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)7 on the young people’s access to rights.