Federica Onori addresses the plenary session in New York on 15 April 2026 (Photo: UN Youth Office/Joel Sheakoski)NEW YORK, 18 April 2026 – The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly was represented at the ECOSOC Youth Forum 2026 in New York by Federica Onori (Italy), Vice-Chair of the OSCE PA Network of Young Parliamentarians and Special Representative on Artificial Intelligence. Held from 14 to 16 April at United Nations Headquarters, the Youth Forum – under the theme “Innovate, Unite and Transform: Youth Shaping the Road to 2030” – served as a key global platform for dialogue between young people, governments and international organizations on accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
On the margins of the Forum, the OSCE PA, in partnership with Search for Common Ground, the Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations, UNFPA, UNDP and UNOY, co-hosted a roundtable entitled “Parliamentary Leadership in Advancing Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) National Action Plans.”
The event brought together parliamentarians, youth representatives, international organizations and experts, including several OSCE PA members joining remotely, to explore how to translate global YPS commitments into national implementation through legislation, budgeting and oversight, with a particular focus on building trust and ensuring long-term impact across generations.
“Parliamentarians are uniquely positioned at the intersection of legislation, oversight and representation. We have the responsibility to translate international commitments into national practice and ensure that young people are not only consulted, but meaningfully included as partners in shaping peace and security policies,” said Onori.
The discussions generated concrete inputs to strengthen parliamentary engagement in advancing the Youth, Peace and Security agenda, informing the OSCE PA’s ongoing work, including the development of a practical implementation checklist for legislators.
Speaking at the closing, OSCE PA Special Representative on Youth Engagement Lucija Tacer (Slovenia), who addressed the event remotely, noted: “The outcomes of today’s roundtable will feed into the next stages of the work of the OSCE PA Parliamentary Dialogue Platform on Youth, Peace and Security, including the development of a checklist for parliamentarians to support the translation of the YPS agenda into legislative action, budgetary priorities and effective oversight.”
On 15 April, Onori also contributed to a plenary session of the Forum entitled “Youth leadership, a critical force in shaping a sustainable and inclusive future for all,” participating in the panel discussion “From Civic Action to Institutional Influence.” The discussion focused on moving beyond consultation towards genuine power-sharing between institutions and young people.
Photo: UN Youth Office/Joel SheakoskiIn her intervention, Special Representative Onori stressed that meaningful youth participation requires structured and institutionalized approaches, engaging young people as co-creators of policy, supported by formal mechanisms, political ownership and accountability of parliamentarians on youth policies, and integration into legislative processes, budgeting and oversight.
On the margins of the Forum, Federica Onori and former OSCE PA Special Representative on Youth Engagement David Stogmuller (Austria) also visited the United Nations Youth Office, where they met with the UN Assistant Secretary General on Youth Affairs, Dr. Felipe Paullier. Discussions focused on strengthening co-operation between the institutions, including potential joint initiatives to further advance youth participation in policymaking and the implementation of the Youth, Peace and Security agenda.
