#BIMR2014 – Deputy Presiding Officer joined by young people to debate youth engagement
28 May 2014
The National Assembly for Wales’s Deputy Presiding Officer, David Melding AM, will chair a plenary session at the British Isles & Mediterranean Region (BIMR) conference in the Senedd chamber on 29 May.
The session, entitled “Engagement of Young Citizens in the Democratic Process”, is one of the key themes of the conference which will be attended by 60 parliamentarians from around the Commonwealth.
The session will include a debate in which teams from Radyr Comprehensive School, Bishop of Llandaff High School in Cardiff, and Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in Ammanford will take part.
The subject of the debate is “This House believes political parties are currently failing to engage young people”.
“The lack of engagement in the political process on the part of young people is an issue that democracies face around the world,” said the Deputy Presiding Officer.
“Here in Wales, the Presiding Officer has made engagement with young people one of the National Assembly’s key objectives in the Fourth Assembly.
“We recently held a Wales-wide consultation with young people asking them how we can best communicate with them – and with more than 3,000 respondents, it is the largest ever response we’ve had to an Assembly consultation.
“That proves that young people want to engage and I hope this session will lead us to discover more ways to reach out and make the Assembly more relevant to the young people of Wales.”
The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA)’s British Isles & Mediterranean Region (BIMR) Conference is being hosted at the Senedd over two days.
Parliamentarians from legislatures as far afield as Cyprus, the Falkland Islands, St Helena, and Malta, as well as delegates form the UK’s other parliaments, will attend in a bid to share best practice.
Joyce Watson AM, Chair of the National Assembly Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, added: “Young people are the future of democracy and ensuring that they engage directly with parliamentary bodies is key.
“The National Assembly does a lot of work with young people through its education and outreach teams but we must ensure that we use all possible levers and techniques to engage with them.
“This session will allow BIMR delegates to share best practice.”
This session can be viewed on Senedd TV by clicking here.