Young people showed up. We will keep showing up.
Voices of Influence Australia responds to the Australian Government’s response to the fourth Universal Periodic Review
Earlier this year, Australia faced one of the world’s most significant human rights accountability processes: the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
Every UN Member State undergoes the UPR approximately every four years, providing an opportunity for governments, civil society and communities to scrutinise a country’s human rights record and identify where more needs to be done.
For Australia’s fourth UPR cycle, young Australians were determined not just to be discussed within that process, but to participate in shaping it.
Through the Young Australians UPR Taskforce, convened by Voices of Influence Australia (VOI), Amnesty International Australia and the Young Diplomats Society, young people came together to develop a youth-led submission to Australia’s review.
It was an important first: a submission built around the lived-experiences, priorities and expectations of young Australians themselves.
The ambition was simple but significant, to ensure young people had a direct role in shaping the priorities and recommendations put forward through one of the international community’s most important human rights accountability mechanisms.
From lived experience to evidence
At the centre of our submission was The Hope Index.
Designed for young people, for young people: The Hope Index was designed to measure something rarely captured in traditional policy processes: how hopeful, confident and prepared young Australians feel about the future they are inheriting. This tool shaped hope into a measurement of civic and human rights progress or lack thereof. Through this, young Australians acted collectively to reclaim the political and civic agency that had previously been at arm's length.
It also examined young Australians’ trust in government, perceptions of Australia’s human rights accountability, political participation and their belief in their own ability to influence change.
The research combined quantitative and qualitative data, with 103 young Australians aged 18–35 participating. Their experiences weren't collected simply to demonstrate that young people had been “consulted”. They became evidence used to inform the submission and its recommendations.
That distinction matters.
At VOI, we believe young people should be part of designing and stress-testing the policies and systems that will shape their lives, not invited into the room after the important decisions have already been made.
What young Australians asked for
The resulting submission put forward 35 recommendations, spanning the human rights issues young Australians identified as fundamental to the country they want to inherit.
Among them were calls for Australia to:
Strengthen human rights accountability and parliamentary scrutiny, with 81% of Hope Index participants supporting a Federal Human Rights Act;
Recognise future generations as rights-holders and embed intergenerational accountability into government decision-making;
Create independent mechanisms capable of holding governments accountable for decisions affecting young people and future generations;
Address systemic and intersectional discrimination against young people, including through genuine youth co-design;
Strengthen First Nations justice, healthcare, gender equality, civic and political education, housing and educational equity;
Legislate the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment;
Introduce a Youth Climate Act embedding young people in national climate decision-making; and
Embed intergenerational equity through legislation that places a duty of care on governments towards children and future generations.
These recommendations were not abstract policy ideas. They were grounded in evidence gathered directly from young Australians about the systems they interact with today and the future they will inherit.
The Government's response
During Australia’s UPR, UN Member States ultimately made 332 recommendations to Australia.
The Albanese Government has now formally responded.
It accepted 128 recommendations and noted 204, meaning Australia accepted approximately 38% of the recommendations made through the review. The Government says it remains committed to implementing those it accepted and continuing to consider others.
There are areas of progress within those commitments, and they should be recognised.
But there are also significant omissions.
The Government did not accept recommendations calling for a national Human Rights Act. It did not accept recommendations from 27 countries calling for Australia to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to at least 14. And of 17 recommendations calling for stronger climate action, only three were accepted.
For young Australians who contributed to our submission, these decisions are particularly significant.
Many of the themes rejected or left unresolved by the Government intersect directly with what young people told us through The Hope Index: that they want stronger human rights protections, greater government accountability, meaningful action on climate change and systems that consider not only today's political cycle, but the generations who will live with its consequences.
Disappointed, but not discouraged
We are disappointed that Australia has not taken this opportunity to go further.
But disappointment cannot be where this work ends.
In many ways, this moment reinforces exactly why VOI exists.
Youth participation cannot depend on governments agreeing with young people every time they speak.
It cannot mean inviting young people into consultation only when their ideas are convenient.
And it cannot stop when a recommendation is rejected.
Meaningful youth participation means building the infrastructure that allows young people to develop ideas, gather evidence, challenge systems, influence decision-makers and, importantly, keep showing up.
The Young Australians UPR Taskforce demonstrated what that can look like.
Young Australians organised. They researched. They shared their experiences. They developed evidence. They engaged with one of the world's most significant human rights mechanisms and put forward concrete solutions for the country they will inherit.
That work still matters, regardless of whether every recommendation was accepted.
Because policy change rarely happens through a single submission, consultation or decision.
It happens when communities build the evidence, leadership and momentum to keep an issue on the agenda.
We will keep showing up
VOI will continue creating the structures and opportunities young Australians need to participate meaningfully in the decisions shaping their lives.
We will continue turning lived experience into evidence.
We will continue bringing that evidence into parliaments, inquiries, international institutions and conversations with decision-makers.
We will continue asking governments to think beyond electoral cycles and consider their responsibility to the generations who come next.
And we will continue supporting young people to understand something fundamental:
Their voice does not lose its value because someone in power chooses not to act on it.
The UPR was never the end point.
It is another step in a much longer process of building a country where young people are not passive recipients of decisions about their future, but active participants in making them.
We showed up.
And we will keep showing up.