Promoting young people's access to social rights as a means for their inclusion and participation in society!
In and around many cities, social and economic imbalances have led to the development of disadvantaged neighborhoods, where diversity is also accompanied by poverty and often marginalization or exclusion. This is sometimes combined with different forms and levels of de facto social segregation, discrimination and violence.
At times of economic and social crisis, feelings of powerlessness and anxiety about the future risk deepening local tensions and underlying conflicts. Young people are often at the center of these tensions because they are more vulnerable and insecure, and because they are more directly affected by uncertainties regarding the development of their autonomy, as well as participation in society and contribution to its development.
The Council of Europe has challenged itself to respond to these situations by adopting recommendations for its member states that encourage and support them in finding adequate policy responses to situations of exclusion, discrimination and violence affecting young people in disadvantaged neighborhoods. In early 2015, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted a policy recommendation with proposals for policy measures to member states in order to promote access to social rights for young people.
