Youth Delegates to the United Nations

Participation in decision-making is one of the key priority areas of the UN's agenda on youth. The most direct form of youth participation at the United Nations has been through the inclusion of youth delegates in a country's official delegation to the United Nations General Assembly.

Youth delegates usually participate at General Assembly meetings in New York for at least two weeks which could be from about mid-September through the first half of November. The role of a youth representative varies depending on priorities of Member State delegations. Many youth delegates are responsible for delivering a statement to the Third Committee, the part of the General Assembly that deals with social, humanitarian and cultural issues.

Meet former youth delegates for 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001 & 2000.

Information on becoming a youth delegate

Some countries already have programmes to select youth delegates, but unfortunately, most don't. One of the easiest ways to find out whether or not your country does, is to check our interviews with past delegates. If your country has had a past representative, chances are they have a programme to select future ones. In the interviews, past delegates explain how they were selected.

If your country is one of those that do not have a programme to select youth delegates, your task will be two-fold:

• First, you have to convince your country on the importance of having a youth representative in its delegation to the UN General Assembly.
• And secondly, once they've established the position, you will have to work towards becoming that person for a particular session.

The United Nations General Assembly has recommended (three times) that Member States include a youth representative in their delegations - and with the support of an organization like a national youth council, it's quite possible that a campaign will be successful.

The road to becoming a youth representative:

• Determine whether or not your country currently has a youth representative programme. If it does, inquire through your department of foreign affairs or a key national youth council about how the application process works.
• If your country does not currently have a youth representative programme, you will have to lobby to have one created. A campaign will be most likely to succeed when backed by a key national youth organisation, so you should meet with the one in your country and start a discussion.
• Sometimes the process may work very quickly, and sometimes it may take a greater effort to have youth delegates become part of government policy.
• Some steps you might take would include:
  • Write to your minister of foreign affairs (or equivalent), outline the merits of youth delegates, and offer to meet to discuss it further.
  • Contact the Minister for Youth (or equivalent), senior public servants, the Ambassador to the UN, or even the Head of State.
  • You might also try to get letters of endorsement from all of the above, plus key civil society leaders, national and international.
• After the proposal has been accepted, and a nomination and selection procedure established (most countries have their main youth council responsible for selection), the next step would be to apply for the position.

Contributions from youth delegates *:

• Info kit by youth delegates to GA57, 2003
• Info kit by youth delegates to GA59, 2004
• Proposals from Mexico: Proposal 1  |  Proposal 2
• UNYSA-UK Proposal for an FCO Youth Delegate at the United Nations General Assembly