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1. Formal Mechanisms of Consultation

2. Actors

3. Information on the extent of youth participation

4. Outcomes

5. Large-scale initiatives for dialogue or debate between public institutions and young people

Formal Mechanisms of Consultation

Consultation for National Youth Strategy

In 2024 and 2025, the largest youth consultation process on a national level took place. To formulate the first National Youth Strategy, a representative group of 100 young people worked intensively with the National Youth Council (Nationale Jeugdraad - NJR), in addition to 12 thousand young people who were consulted via online questionnaires, serious games and events throughout the country and Caribian islands, 10 ministries, and (youth) experts. From September 2025 onwards, the National Youth Council (Nationale Jeugdraad - NJR) has been in contact with various ministries who can translate the National Youth Strategy into actual policy. 

Rights of the Child

Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children and young people have the right to participation in discussions about matters that affect their lives. The Netherlands is one of the countries that has ratified the Convention.

Strengthening participation on a regional and local level

The law on strengthening participation at the decentralized level (Wet versterking participatie op decentraal niveau) encourages municipalities and provinces to involve citizens more actively in policymaking. This includes young people. The law requires local governments to adopt participation ordinances, which increasingly include provisions for meaningful youth participation, ensuring that children and young people can contribute to decisions that affect their lives.

Right to be heard in education

Young people who are in inclusive education trajectories have the right to be heard by law since the Strengthening the position of parents and pupils in appropriate education (Wet versterking positive ouders en leerlingen in het passend onderwijsv) was implemented in 2025. Students must be able to voice their opinion about their educational trajectories in all stages of the development of their personalised plan: drafting, adjusting, determining, and evaluating. 

Youth consultation

Young people are often consulted in policy development processes. However, standardized procedures are rare. Consultation thus looks different per section of national government, municipality, and (youth-focused) organisations. The methods and regularity of consultation differs.

There are various guidelines available, which are meant to serve as inspiration.  

• The National Youth Council (Nationale Jeugdraad - NJR), see 5.3 Youth representation bodies, published Building blocks for meaningful youth participation (Bouwstenen voor betekenisvolle jongerenparticipatie). The insights are helpful for all levels of youth participation.
• The Netherlands Youth institute (Nederlands Jeugdinstituut) and National Agengy Erasmus + Youth published a report called  (Aan de slag met jongerenparticipatie), with advice and inspiration for local government, municipalities. The report is based on the Democracy Reloading project. 
   

Actors

Youth actors

The main youth actors in youth consultation and participation in the Netherlands are listed in 5.3, youth representation bodies. The mentioned actors are: 

• National Youth Council (Nationale Jeugdraad, NJR)
• Dutch Students Union (Landelijke Studentenvakbond, LSVB)
• Dutch National Student Association (Interstedelijk Studenten Overleg, ISO)
• Youth Organisation Vocational Education (Jongeren Organisatie Beroepsonderwijs, JOBmbo)
• National Action Committee School Pupils (Landelijk Aktie Komitee Scholieren, LAKS)

Specific target groups

There are no large scale initiatives to promote the participation of specific target groups in the Netherlands, that are known now. 

Public authorities

Municipalties are key public authorities in youth consultation and participation processes.

Additional stakeholders

• Edcuational insitituions are important stakeholders for youth consultation, as they can promote the participation of their students in developing their policies. 

• Youth foundations such as The Little Embassy (De Kleine Ambassade) and consultancy firms such as Young Works can play a key role in facilitating youth participation in public government and youth focussed organisations. 

   

Information on the extent of youth participation

There are no national data available. The organisation for Children’s rights in the Netherlands (Kinderrechten in Beweging, only in Dutch) tries to provide an overview of participation opportunities for children and young people in their annual monitor report. 

Outcomes

There is no recent national information available about the outcomes of youth consultation processes. 

Large-scale initiatives for dialogue or debate between public institutions and young people

There were no large-scale initiatives found. Specific dialogue or debates were organized by the National Youth Council (Nationale Jeugdraad, NJR), for example a dialogue diner with the National Coördinator against Discrimination and Racism.