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1. Existence of a national strategy to increase young people's political and civil society participation

2. Scope and contents

3. Responsible authority for the implementation of the strategy

4. Revisions/ updates 

Existence of a national strategy to increase young people's political and civil society participation

A stand-alone national strategy on youth participation does not exist. However, the development of young people's social and civic competences is an important objective of the Luxembourgish youth policy. As stated in the 2008 Youth Law (Art. 1,3), one objective of youth policy is to contribute to the education of young people as responsible and active citizens who are respectful of democracy, values and fundamental rights of society.

Young people's participation is also an important issue discussed in the 2012 Youth Pact, the Youth Pact 2017-2020 and the National Action Plan for Youth 2022-2025. Promoting the participation of young people is defined as a main objective of youth policy.

Scope and contents

The  2012 Youth Pact outlines 5 action fields and defines several objectives to support the young people of Luxembourg. The 4th action field is titled 'Establish young people as stakeholders'. It aims at fostering the participatory potential of young people. The 4th action field of the Youth Pact calls for establishing young people as stakeholders by:

• Eliminating gender boundaries
• Promoting and developing youth participation
• Promoting and extending participation opportunities
• Promoting access to culture
• Implementing the national action plan regarding integration and the fight against discrimination.

Most of the actions are implemented at national level and address very diverse political fields.

The Youth Pact 2017-2020 defines political objectives with regard to 3 domains:

1. School-to-work transitions
2. Housing transitions
3. Participation.

The Youth Pact 2017-2020 aims at strengthening the participation of all young people by endeavouring to:

• Position youth participation in formal and non-formal education:
  • Promote the development of a thematic expertise of the actors in the field of non-formal education in the domain of democracy, values and participation
  • Develop a coherent approach for the participation and active citizenship of pupils in schools
  • Develop the method of structured dialogue further, both for youth organisations and young people that are not members
• Develop inclusive participation for particular target groups:
  • Encourage the development of models for inclusive participation by the existing tools (funding schemes, trainings, contracts, publications, pilot projects)
  • Promote the development of concepts and methods of youth work in order to foster the inclusion of young people with disabilities
  • Foster the cultural participation of young people by making use of their inclusive potential
• Strengthen the capacity of stakeholders through participation in networking:
  • Create a platform to set up a network for all actors involved in promoting the participation and citizenship of young people.

The Youth Pact 2017-2020 does not define any concrete mechanisms, outputs or time frames for the implementation of the different actions. Nor does it name the public or non-public actors involved and their specific role in the process of the implementation.

Responsible authority for the implementation of the strategy

Many and various public authorities (policy departments, administrations) are involved in the implementation of the political actions defined in the Youth Pact (e.g. the National Youth Service, the National Employment Administration, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Housing, Ministry of Equal Opportunities, etc.).

The main body for the implementation and supervision of the Youth Pact is the interdepartmental committee for youth.

To date, no evaluation of the implementation of the strategy 2017-2020 has been conducted.

Revisions/updates

There are no revisions or updates.