Deputy Secretary-General Calls on Youth to ‘Make Noise’ in United Nations Processes

Following are remarks by UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed at the launch of the Core Principles for Meaningful Youth Participation in Intergovernmental Processes and UN Work, delivered in New York on Monday, 16 March 2026:

Do we have youth in the room…? This is where we start.

It is fantastic to have you at the United Nations.

Let me start by thanking you who have really shaped these Principles and Member States who backed them, so it is great to see our Member States here too.

You earned this moment.

I know some of you have been in rooms like this one before and wondered whether anything would change.

You have spent countless hours at the United Nations affirming that young people matter in our processes and that the future requires their leadership.

Today we are doing something different because of what we are putting on the table.

These Principles are the first time that we have written down, in a concrete operational document, exactly what meaningful youth participation requires and who is accountable for delivering it.

They were called for under the Pact for the Future, and they deliver on that call.

Look at the tally:

Twenty-three consultations with youth networks across the globe.

Ten UN entities.

Member States engaged at every stage.

The process itself of getting to today is the first demonstration of what these Principles require.

Through the monitoring tool, commitments that are made by Member States on youth participation will be recorded and tracked. So it will be about following the Principles.

Until now, there has been no way to trace a commitment made in this building to the young person it was supposed to reach.

From today on, a young person, whether they are in Kampala or Karachi, will be able to look up what their Government promised and whether or not it has been delivered.

We are launching the Principles here, at the Commission on the Status of Women, because this is where they belong.

Every conversation in this building this week is about what happens when women are denied their agency and rights, and what it costs all of us as a society when they are.

Young women find themselves at the intersection of many of the barriers we are trying to dismantle.

Whether shut out for being young, or being a woman, each reinforces the other and these, the two forces, compound one another.

These Principles address both.

The world has framed youth participation as something we do for young people.

That kind of thinking has let institutions off the hook for decades.

But our work at the United Nations is only as good as its connection to those who will implement it and carry it forward for future generations. And for that, we are incredible honoured and grateful to have Felipe [Paullier] at the helm of [Youth] Affairs, who is fighting that battle together with you all.

The people who will implement what we agree in rooms like this one, and who will live with the consequences in places from the Sahel to the Pacific Islands, are largely under thirty.

So, I am urging everyone to use these Principles and build them into your processes from the beginning, so that they will impact lived experiences in the lives of those that have been left behind.

To the young people here, when we fall short, hold us to account, because that too is part of what we are committing to today - to enable meaningful change in your lives. So, I'm urging you: Make noise, take up space, and if anyone in this building tells you to wait your turn, show them the Principles - and perhaps even the door.

To everyone else, the bar has just been officially raised, so let's work together to make sure not a single young person is left behind as we move forward.