To mark the International Day of the Child, the National Assembly for Wales has launched a poll for the Welsh Youth Parliament. The purpose of the poll is to give young people Wales the opportunity to inform which issues the first Parliament should discuss.
This is in line with Article 12 of the UN Rights of Children, which relates to the voice of young people:
Children have the right to have their say on what should happen when adults make decisions that affect them, and their opinions should be taken into account.
This is the final week of the first Welsh Youth Parliament Election with 460 candidates aged between 11 and 18 campaigning across 40 constituencies in Wales to be elected members. A further 20 will be elected by partner organisations with the result being published on December 5th.
The outcome of the online poll will inform what the Youth Parliament of Wales will discuss at the first plenary session in the Senedd in Cardiff Bay in February 2019.
Delyth Lewis, Project Leader, Welsh Youth Parliament said;
"Over the past six months, the Youth Parliament team of Wales has been asking young people in holidays, engagement events and during school visits and the Assembly which issues are important to them. From the 2,000 topics we have selected the favourites and we can now give young people over Wales the opportunity to decide what the priorities of the first Parliament will be through the online questionnaire. On the International Day of the Child it is important that we emphasise the right for children to voice their opinions and the results of the survey will feed directly into the work of our first Youth Parliament here in Wales."
Some of the topics in a questionnaire include Emotional Health and Mental Health, Equalities and Rights, Bullying and Cyberbullying and Brexit and its impact on the future of Wales.