Samarkand, Uzbekistan : Lawmakers aged under 40 from around the world gathered this week in Samarkand for the 12th IPU Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians.
Co-hosted by the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan on 4 and 5 September 2026, the Conference was held under the theme Reclaiming human rights, justice and dignity for all in turbulent times.
Over the two days, the young parliamentarians examined how parliaments can protect young people affected by conflict and respond to current challenges including strengthening human rights-based governance of digital technologies, online safety, data privacy, misinformation, climate change, unemployment and political violence.
In their outcome document, the young MPs reaffirmed that human rights are the foundation of safe, dignified and empowered lives. The principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are being tested by new conflicts, emerging technologies, environmental crises and growing economic and political uncertainty. But young people should not be defined by the erosion of rights. The young MPs expressed their determination to turn these setbacks into a source of resolve, solidarity and action, committing themselves to reclaiming human rights and upholding the responsibility of parliaments to promote and protect them.
Focus on jobs and the SDGs:
A special session at the Conference considered how parliaments can help implement the SDGs, with particular attention to SDG 8 on decent work and economic growth.
The discussion comes as young people face growing insecurity in the labour market and difficult prospects for finding decent employment.
The lawmakers recognized the Host Parliament’s role in promoting parliamentary engagement with the SDGs at the United Nations. Uzbekistan supported a 2022 General Assembly resolution on enhancing the role of parliaments in accelerating implementation of the SDGs, as well as a resolution this year on accelerating social development.
The resolutions reflect a growing recognition that parliaments should not simply monitor progress on the SDGs, but help turn global commitments into action.
Young MPs remain under-represented:
The Conference followed the publication earlier this year of the IPU’s latest biennial report on youth participation in national parliaments.
Published in April 2026, the report found that MPs aged 30 or under accounted for just 2.8% of parliamentarians worldwide, unchanged from 2023. It was the first time since the IPU began tracking youth participation in 2014 that progress had stalled, highlighting a significant democratic deficit in the political representation of young people. The report also found that the proportion of young women MPs aged 30 or under has shrunk, from 1.4% in 2023 to 1.2%, signalling an alarming regression. Recognizing high rates of political violence against women as a key obstacle, women and men MPs received training during the Conference to build their skills to combat this, as part of the Women and Youth Democratic Engagement (WYDE) Women’s Leadership Initiative, funded by the European Union.
Background:
The IPU’s Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians was established in 2014 to strengthen youth participation in parliamentary work, provide a platform for young people’s perspectives, and promote networking, solidarity and capacity-building.
The Conference usually rotates around the world. Previous editions have taken place in Switzerland, (2014), Japan (2015); Zambia (2016), Canada (2017), Azerbaijan (2018), Paraguay (2019), online (2021), Egypt (2022), Viet Nam (2023), Armenia (2024) and Peru (2025).
Outcome document:
We, approximately 100 young parliamentarians from 50 countries, gathered in Samarkand to affirm our commitment to reclaim human rights, justice and dignity for all in today’s turbulent times. As implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is essential for young people to enjoy their rights today and in the future, we also held a special session on parliamentary engagement in the SDGs. Our average age was 35 years, and 47% of us were women. We were joined by more senior parliamentarians, representatives of international organizations, civil society, youth organizations and experts.
Human rights are the foundation upon which young people build safe, dignified and empowered lives. They are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reaffirmed in the SDGs, which provides a universal framework for advancing rights, social inclusion, environmental sustainability, peace and leaving no one behind. Although the protection of human rights has always faced challenges, today, new conflicts, emerging technologies, accelerating environmental crises, and economic and political uncertainty are testing these principles in ways that could not have been foreseen when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948.
Coming of age in this context, young people are often among the most affected by these challenges. But we will not be a generation defined by the erosion of rights. We are determined to turn these setbacks into a source of resolve, solidarity and action. As young MPs, we commit to reclaim human rights and uphold our parliamentary responsibility to promote and protect them. We also acknowledge that human rights and sustainable development are mutually reinforcing, and that progress towards the SDGs is essential to building societies in which young people can live with dignity, equality and opportunity. We are not alone in recognizing the urgency of these challenges; the IPU as a whole has designated human rights as its priority theme for 2026. We strongly support the IPU Bring human rights into focus campaign as a practical framework for mobilizing parliamentary engagement, and join the call for all MPs to take concrete action.
Human rights violations are most blatant in situations of conflict, and these are at their highest number since the Second World War. Attacks on civilians and violations of international humanitarian and human rights law are at alarming levels. Women and young people are often disproportionately affected. Parliaments cannot stand on the sidelines as these trends deepen. To better protect the rights of young people, including in times of conflict, we emphasized the following actions:
• The promotion by parliaments of the ratification and effective implementation of treaties relevant to international humanitarian law and human rights, ensuring parliamentary oversight of their implementation, and paying greater attention to the protection of young people.
• Stronger implementation of the United Nations (UN) Youth, Peace and Security agenda, including through the meaningful participation of young MPs and youth in peacebuilding, reconciliation and parliamentary diplomacy.
• Safeguarding access to education, healthcare and livelihoods for young people affected by conflict and displacement, including refugee and internally displaced youth, while promoting education that fosters peace and resilience to radicalization and violent extremism, and ensuring that young people’s voices are represented in decisions that affect them.
• Ensuring that human rights and civics education, including on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are firmly enshrined in the curricula for all school-age children.
• Active engagement with the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians. This can include raising awareness of its findings, supporting follow-up on cases affecting young MPs, promoting accountability for human rights violations and condemning all threats and attacks against MPs, regardless of their background or political views.
• Parliaments’ active engagement with UN human rights mechanisms, including the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and treaty bodies such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), with a view to strengthening parliamentary oversight of the fulfilment of international obligations and follow-up to adopted recommendations.
Beyond conflict, rapid technological change is creating new and evolving challenges for human rights. With young people increasingly functioning in online spaces, protection and regulation have struggled to keep pace: one in three young people report having been a victim of online bullying, and technology continues to evolve faster than the institutions meant to govern it. Digital innovation must expand young people’s rights and opportunities, not erode them. We highlighted the need for: • Ensuring the accessibility of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), and their human-rightsbased and compassionate governance, with parliamentary oversight of their responsible development and use.
• Strengthening data privacy, cybersecurity and online safety protections, as well as the implementation of effective, survivor-centred mechanisms to prevent and respond to online violence, harassment and exploitation targeting young people, including young women.
• Stronger regulation, transparency and accountability of technology platforms to protect mental health and address discrimination, misinformation, disinformation and online harms while safeguarding freedom of expression, alongside greater digital literacy to help young people navigate online spaces safely and critically.
• Youth-friendly education and skills pathways to prepare young people for a digitalizing labour market and equip them to harness new technologies, including to advance the SDGs.
The threats to young people’s right to a safe and healthy planet are no longer a future risk, but a lived reality. Estimates suggest that children born in 2020 could face up to seven times the number of heatwaves as those born in 1960. Climate change is also a major obstacle to achieving the SDGs. Young people’s and future generations’ rights to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment must be upheld. To strengthen environmental protection, we identified the following priorities:
• Parliaments to use their legislative, budgetary and oversight powers to accelerate implementation of the Paris Agreement and climate-related dimensions of the 2030 Agenda, including through ambitious legislation, effective adaptation and mitigation measures, and strengthened oversight of climate finance. Particular attention should be paid to the needs of developing countries, and those in vulnerable situations, especially young people.
• Recognition and implementation of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment in national legislation and constitutional frameworks.
• Meaningful and structured youth participation in national and international climate decision-making processes, including the design of national climate plans and national delegations to climate conferences.
• Intergenerational justice and equity to be embedded in climate policy and budgeting, with parliaments overseeing climate plans and finance to safeguard the rights and interests of future generations.
Young people also face disproportionate barriers to the full realization of their economic rights: youth unemployment is two to three times higher than the rate for adults, and the International Labour Organization estimates that in 2025 around one in four young people were neither employed nor in education or training. To advance youth economic rights and employment, we underscored the importance for:
• Accelerated implementation of SDG 8 on decent work and economic growth, with parliaments overseeing national strategies to reduce youth unemployment and informality.
• Legislation and budgetary measures that expand access to decent work, fair wages, inclusive social protection and entrepreneurship opportunities, including young women and youth in vulnerable situations.
• Investment in education, vocational training and reskilling programmes aligned with labour-market needs and a just transition to more sustainable economies, to ease young people’s transition from education to decent work. This includes targeted pathways out of economic vulnerability for young people not in employment, education or training (NEET).
Political participation is a fundamental human right, and parliaments must ensure that young people can exercise it free from violence, discrimination and intimidation. However, youth continue to face barriers to political engagement. Only 2.8% of parliamentarians worldwide are aged 30 and under, unchanged since 2023. Roughly four in five women MPs surveyed have experienced psychological violence during their parliamentary terms, with younger women at heightened risk. To ensure political rights and eliminate violence and discrimination:
• Alongside our longstanding calls to enhance youth participation through youth quotas and by lowering the age of eligibility to run for office, we also highlighted the need for greater attention to the retention and empowerment of young MPs already in office, further exploration of measures such as term and age limits, and the further promotion of youth parliaments that work in close cooperation with national parliaments.
• Echoing the call made at the 2026 IPU Global Conference of Women Parliamentarians, we call for passing and overseeing the enforcement of laws and zero-tolerance policies to combat violence against women and girls, including harassment and intimidation against women in politics – online and offline – with effective reporting mechanisms, survivor-centred support services and accountability for perpetrators, and measures to challenge social norms that hinder women’s participation.
• We also emphasized the need for parliaments to ensure that young people in all their diversity have meaningful opportunities to participate in parliamentary processes related to sustainable development.
In the special session on parliamentary engagement in the SDGs, we recalled the 2022 UN resolution on enhancing the role of parliaments in accelerating the achievement of the SDGs as well as the 2025 Tashkent Declaration on Parliamentary action for social development and justice, adopted at the 150th IPU Assembly. We further welcomed the recent adoption of the UN resolution on enhancing the role of parliaments in accelerating social development, put forward by Uzbekistan, which strengthens international recognition of parliaments as key actors in advancing social development and accelerating progress. We regard these resolutions as important milestones in strengthening the parliamentary dimension of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda) and in connecting global commitments with national implementation. With 2030 fast approaching, we commit to championing youth participation in accelerating implementation of this Agenda, recognizing that sustainable development and human rights must be pursued in an integrated manner, including by:
• Mainstreaming the SDGs across parliamentary work and promoting youth participation in legislative, budgetary and oversight processes and in the preparation and follow-up of Voluntary National Reviews. This can include through the work of dedicated committees, hearings and evidence-based scrutiny.
• Advocating for the inclusion of young MPs in national delegations to major UN meetings such as the HighLevel Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF).
• Promoting stronger cooperation between parliaments, governments, the United Nations, the IPU, civil society, youth organizations and other stakeholders to accelerate implementation of the 2030 Agenda and to share effective parliamentary practices.
• Ensuring that parliamentary action on the SDGs reaches those most at risk of being left behind, including young people, women, persons with disabilities, marginalized communities and people living in situations of poverty or vulnerability.
We look forward to bringing the perspectives consolidated in Samarkand to the IPU Global Parliamentary Conference on Human Rights taking place on 12 and 13 November 2026.
United, we will turn words into action and continue to build parliaments and societies where the rights of all are protected and fulfilled. We thank the Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan for its warm hospitality and for creating the space for young parliamentarians to come together and renew our collective commitment to human rights.
