A/HRC/39/33 protection in others. A recent report of the European Network of Equality Bodies 12 found that age limits are employed as a mechanism to discriminate against young people, for example in employment, legal capacity and voting. 32. To understand and analyse discrimination against young people, it is critical to acknowledge that age is one characteristic that often intersects, adds to and multiplies discrimination based on other grounds. Together with the structural and institutional barriers that youth also face, such multiple discrimination prevents many young people from enjoying equal opportunities and substantive equality. 13 Some of the areas in which youth face heightened discrimination and challenges in claiming their rights are described below. A. Participation in politics and public decision-making 33. Globally, youth participation and representation in institutional political processes and policymaking is low compared with that of other age groups. Young people are not proportionately represented in political institutions, such as parliaments, political parties and public administrations, thereby fuelling disenfranchisement and distrust in formal structures, electoral processes, leaders and policymakers.14 Legal and other barriers faced by young people in running for public office represent a major obstacle to the promotion of youth participation, particularly in political processes. 34. Less than 2 per cent of parliamentarians worldwide are under the age of 30. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), young people are underrepresented in parliament for several reasons: first, the minimum age required to run for office is often higher than the minimum voting age, requiring a wait in some cases until 25, 35 or even 45 years of age. This is especially true in the case of upper houses, which tend to establish a higher eligibility age. The results show that where “young” is defined as under age 30, very few young parliamentarians are elected. The proportion of under-30 parliamentarians exceeds 10 per cent in only four countries: Ecuador, Finland, Norway and Sweden. 15 35. The minimum age for parliamentary candidacies should be aligned with the minimum voting age to increase young people’s access to parliament. There is a correlation between lower eligibility ages and higher levels of youth representation, with lower legal thresholds fostering a climate in which young people are more likely to come forward and be elected to parliament at an earlier age. 36. With the exception of some countries, for example Argentina, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua in Latin America, or Austria, Estonia and Malta in Europe, which set the voting age at 16, most countries in the world set 18 as the voting age. In some countries, voting ages are set higher than 18, for example Malaysia and Singapore, where the voting age is 21. In 2016, Japan lowered the voting age from 20 to 18. 37. In the context of the universal periodic review, some Governments have made recommendations to States that still have voting ages set higher than 18 to lower them (see e.g. A/HRC/17/3). The Committee on the Rights of the Child has emphasized that, if States decide to lower the voting age to under 18 years, they should invest in measures that support adolescents in understanding, recognizing and fulfilling their role as active citizens, including through citizenship and human rights education and by identifying and addressing barriers to their engagement and participation. 38. In addition to young people’s underrepresentation in traditional institutions of representative democracy, their participation in the drafting of legislation and the formulation, monitoring and implementation of policies affecting their lives is also often 12 13 14 15 8 Opening up the Issue: Equality Bodies Combating Discrimination against and Promoting Equality for Young People (Brussels, 2016). European Youth Forum submission. Opening statement of the High Commissioner at the Forum on Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law held in 2016. IPU, Youth Participation in National Parliaments (Geneva, 2016).