Last month the UK Youth Parliament held its annual meet in Northern Ireland for the first time. At the University of Ulster Jordanstown Campus. John Bercow, House of Commons Speaker, was there too. The event was facilitated by the Northern Ireland Youth Forum. One of my bugbears is that democratic participation is given such short shrift by Newsround.

Takeover Day will be on Friday 12 November 2010, and I was told on 26th April that this year Newsround is going to connect with the Children's Commissioner. It will be nice to see genuine youth participation in choice of news items, presentation etc (cf. blogs 13 April & 17 April 2010)

In line with the theme for the International Year of Youth 2010, the theme for this year’s International Youth Day tomorrow is "Dialogue and Mutual Understanding". It is planned that Global Youth Participation Week will take place during IYY in March 2011

International Youth Day will also mark the launch of "Yparticipate" a global youth-led initiative providing relevant tools for meaningful youth participation in decisions that affect them (http://yparticipate.org/).