A/HRC/34/46 its additional protocol. He explained that the Pact had been developed with young people, including Afrodescendants, indigenous people and representatives of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, through a participatory, inclusive and bottom-up approach and taking into consideration young people’s expectations and diverse experiences. The Pact provided a legal and programmatic framework for the development of concrete actions and tangible initiatives developed by and with young people in 21 States. It was complemented by a plan of action for the effective implementation of youth rights through a holistic and comprehensive approach in which participation featured as a cross-cutting right. The guarantee of youth participation as a right was also made explicit in the updated Ibero-American Convention and its additional protocol, international legally binding instruments dedicated to the promotion and protection of the rights of young people. He concluded by recalling that young people were strategic stakeholders, economic players and agents of social change, and noted that the positive developments in the field of youth participation had shown that youth participation was no longer an idea, but a fact. Mr. Trejo Cervantes urged relevant stakeholders not to limit their efforts to merely listening to the voices of youth but rather to act upon them. 64. Mr. Kauschanski shared his experiences as a young person participating in decisionmaking at the international level. He explained that the role of youth delegates was to strengthen linkages between civil society and the United Nations. At the international level, for example, that translated into the responsibility to draw attention to youth concerns and ideas when important resolutions were negotiated and adopted, as well as to advocate for more youth representation in international decision-making forums. At the national level, youth delegates, through their access to politicians, could contribute to making the priorities of the international community a political reality. They raised awareness among young people about the United Nations, shared ideas and empowered youth to engage with political processes. Despite the recommendations made since 1981 to Member States to include youth in their delegations, only about 35, mostly developed, countries (the highest number in the history of the youth delegate programme) included youth in their delegations to United Nations meetings. However, aside from the youth members of State delegations, many young people had taken concrete action to make their voices heard at the international level, including representatives of youth organizations, young human rights defenders and unpaid United Nations interns. All those efforts combined were now paving the way for the enhanced participation of youth in the United Nations. Mr. Kauschanski made a plea to all participants to continue their engagement to empower the young generations to take an active role in decision-making. 65. Ms. Muyambo discussed the role of youth in the work and activities of the Human Rights Council and her experience with the organization of the youth forum at the Commission on the Status of Women, as well as of the first youth forum held in connection with the Council, prior to its thirty-second session. Ms. Muyambo welcomed the adoption by the Council of resolution 28/14 establishing the Forum and congratulated the Permanent Mission of Romania to the United Nations Office at Geneva and the core group for having created a space for young people. She shared lessons learned from the youth forum of the Human Rights Council, and stressed the need to educate youth about the mandate of the Council and to provide clearer guidance on how young people could participate and engage meaningfully with its work, including the universal periodic review. Ms. Muyambo raised the issue of how to ensure that discussions held in the Forum would have an impact at the local level, particularly among the most marginalized youth, including young women. She noted the high level of frustration among young people, who already felt distant from policymaking at the local level, and how such frustration was amplified vis-à-vis the work of the Council, which was perceived as being even further away from their reality. 66. Participants discussed whether an international legally binding human rights instrument for youth rights would strengthen the protection and promotion of those rights. 16