Young parliamentarians aged under 30 consist only 1.9 per cent of the total 45,000 members of parliament in 128 parliaments across the world, according to a study revealed here on Tuesday.
Although the role of young parliamentarians is crucial for strengthening democracy and bringing positive changes in society, their participation in legislative process are very few, said IPU’s Youth Participation expert Zeina Hilal.
Addressing a press briefing at the media centre of Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC), she said the IPU thought that youth participation in strengthening democracy and political process is important as they have an impact on democracy with changing political landscape.
She said the IPU conducted the study on 128 parliaments in 2014 and 2015 and gathered data for MPs aged under 30, 40 and 45 along with gender disaggregated information.
According to the study, a total of 1.2 billion people are aged 15 to 24 on the planet, about one fifth of the world’s population and the global maiden age is 29.6 years while 57 per cent of potential voters are between the age of 20 and 44 absent from voting.
President of the Forum of Young Parliamentarians of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) Osoru Mourine, who joined the briefing, said the IPU’s young parliamentarians are working for good practice in politics across the world through participation in parliaments.
“Young MPs are raising their voices in parliaments for strengthening democracy and more participation…Nominations are not easy for young people,” she said.
Mourine said the IPU young forum is set up to spearhead the young’s work to boost the participation of young people in parliaments and to help ensure young MPs play a full part in the work of parliament.
She was elected President of the Forum of Young Parliamentarians of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) after beating competition from Russia and Zambia, as a MP of the Ugandan.
“I am going to use my position as President to tackle youth challenges such as unemployment and poverty which sometimes predispose young people to being radicalized into terrorism as we have seen in some parts of the world,” she said.
They stressed on electing more young people in parliament and appoint young people to political positions to improve exclusivity in policy-making and legislation.
