1.2 National youth law
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Existence of a National Youth Law
In 2011, the Agency of Youth and Sport submitted an initiative for developing Law on Youth which addressed youth participation in decision making processes at local and national level and youth organizing. After approval from the Government, the Ministry of Justice formed a working group and drafted a text which was submitted to the Parliament. However, it was decided that the draft Law on Youth should be more widely consulted with the youth organizations throughout North Macedonia, and therefore, the Government redraw the text to additional revision.
At the beginning of 2018, the issue of drafting the Law on Youth was raised again. The issue was initiated by the Club on Youth Affairs and Policies of the Assembly of North Macedonia. During 2019, a working group of representatives of youth organizations, institutions and youth of political parties drafted the first version of the first Law on Youth.
Nine years after the first initiative, in January 2020, the Government adopted the law, with its full name Law on Youth Participation and Youth Policies (Закон за младинско учество и младински политики).
Scope and contents
The subject of regulation of the law are the forms of youth organization, youth participation in the process of creating youth policies and decision-making related to them, strategic documents at national and local level, activities and measures undertaken by state administration bodies and local self-government units for advancing the position of young people in society, as well as informing and joint planning of activities related to and for young people. According to Article 2, the purpose of the law is to provide: 1) creating and implementing youth policy at all levels through a multi-sectoral approach, starting from the needs and interests of young people; 2) strengthening the participation of young people in the processes of creating policies for young people, active information, promotion and protection of the interests of young people, as well as strengthening the awareness of the importance of young people and their social role; 3) promoting intergenerational partnerships to support youth participation in the decision-making and policy-making process; 4) support and promotion of youth organization; 5) encouraging structural dialogue at national and local level; 6) encouraging volunteering, youth activism and youth work and 7) encouraging personal, professional and social development of young people. The law defines in more detail the forms of youth organization and representation (youth organization, youth organization, youth umbrella organizations, national assembly for youth), the forms of youth participation, regulates the establishment of local youth councils, defines youth policies (national strategy for youth, local youth strategy), as well as youth services (youth office, youth center, youth officer).
Revisions/updates
On the initiative of the Club on Youth Issues and Youth Policies of the Assembly of North Macedonia, a series of consultative meetings were held regarding the challenges and opportunities arising from the implementation of the Law on Youth Participation and Youth Policies. In that direction, during this year, a process for submitting proposal to the Law on Youth Participation and Youth Policies was opened.