A/HRC/34/46 brought with it both challenges and opportunities for the youth. She provided statistics showing the low levels of involvement of youth in politics and of trust in State institutions but also a higher level of trust in the military and in religious organizations, demonstrating that younger generations were seeking ways to engage and express themselves but avoiding doing so through institutionalized politics. In that context, Ms. Chebbi noted that there was a direct correlation between the unfulfilled expectations of youth in terms of participation in public affairs and their growing sense of disengagement from politics and distrust in democratic institutions, which in turn fuelled exclusion and more mistrust. Another challenge stemmed from the lack of an appropriate legal framework to support civil society’s efforts to build young people’s political and leadership skills. She regretted that in many countries, youth tended to be asked for their views and participation only with regard to issues related to sports and music. She referred to a number of opportunities for increased youth participation, such as the lowering of the minimum age requirement to stand in parliamentary and presidential elections in Tunisia and to the system of quotas to ensure youth representation in local elections. She also referred to the positive practice of engaging youth in election observation programmes, which had proven to be successful in preventing electoral violence and fostering youth engagement in the electoral process. 35. Mr. Tewari spoke about the diversity of Indian society, including in terms of gender, ethnicity, culture and religion, and underlined that such diversity also existed among the youth, who were expected to number 700 million by 2020. However, although young people were very closely interconnected and engaged, they were also “growing in a culture of silence”, in which the two most influential systems — the media and politics — were heavily top-down and not designed for participation, and were taught not to question the norm. Mr. Tewari stressed that the Internet and information and communications technologies (ICTs) constituted unique platforms for youth engagement. However, the lack of inclusivity and of access to ICTs for most marginalized and excluded youth were two major challenges to participation. He expressed concern regarding the nature of the engagement taking place online, which included the dissemination of rampant sexism, discrimination, patriarchal ideologies and other challenges that had been passed on to young people by older generations. While the responsibility to address those challenges lay with young people, they were not given enough space in politics or the media. He stressed that every single decision made had an impact on young people, and called for moving beyond lip service and creating more online and offline platforms, including in the media and civil society, in order to engage young people and give them the opportunity to influence decision-making. 36. Participants discussed whether setting voluntary or compulsory quotas were a driving factor for promoting long-term, sustained inclusion of young people in political processes, or rather stigmatized them. Most participants were of the view that quotas had the potential to break the vicious cycle of young people’s marginal role in politics and decision-making when they were supported by additional measures, such as legislation that aligned the minimum voting age with the minimum age of eligibility to run for office, automatic voter registration and limitations on electoral campaign expenses, to allow young people to compete on an equal basis. 37. Participants discussed the need to create and preserve structures that offered inclusive opportunities for youth to influence decision-making, drawing from existing positive experiences at the local, national and regional levels such as participatory budgeting, youth councils, youth parliaments and co-management systems. The role of traditional political parties was also emphasized in the context of young people who wished to enter politics, particularly youth belonging to the most excluded groups, including rural youth, who often did not enjoy equal access to online platforms or to self-representation in the media. 10