The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), ratified by the Philippine government, states that children are

neither objects nor helpless creatures. They are individuals with inalienable rights. Yet, they are also members of society with responsibilities appropriate to their levels of development. UN CRC clearly recognizes childrens right to participate in the community. Even before the ratification of the UN CRC, however, there were already opportunities for children and youth to participate in governance. Filipino youth have shown they want and deserve a voice in their communities. Political participation of youth may be instrumental in overcoming increasing generational tensions and contradictions. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations in 1989, was an important step in promoting the idea of participation of children and young people. In the following years, this topic was taken up by the Council of Europe in the framework of different international projects. In addition, the Council and the Ministers of Youth of the European Union adopted a resolution on youth participation under the Austrian presidency in 1998. Partially as a result of these initiatives, many European countries have been promoting political participation of young people below voting age over the past decade. However, it is difficult to obtain an overview of the ongoing developments due to the lack of documentation of this relatively new field. To compensate for this lack, the international research project Political Participation of Youth below voting age aimed to analyze the situation in different European member states. London Youth are currently running The Challenge Programme in the three boroughs of Hackney, Harbinger and Tower Hamlets. We are looking for organizations to be a community partner to work with young people over the summer to inspire them to get involved in volunteering, through running a volunteering project for the day and/or work with them to develop a fundraising idea for your organization More than 50% of the population in India comprises of youth. The future leaders in politics will have to emerge from this youth brigade. Though Indian politics is being dominated by older politicians, recently there have been many young politicians who have started making a mark in the political field. Here are a few of the young leaders under the age of 42 who have started to bring in the change. In most regional meetings such as the ones above, you will find that Singaporean youths are often under-represented. Most often they are unaware of such meetings and collaborative opportunities, or there is not an alternative/independent youth organization through which to connect Singapore to these events and activities. Singaporean youth participation at present is only limited participation in some Japanese-sponsored exchange programs or at government-to-government contacts, facilitated through the Singapore International Foundation, the National Youth Council and youth representation from the Peoples Association. There is also some contact through the youth arms of the Rotary and Lion Clubs. However, most contacts of this nature are not political but educational and cultural.