The Nordic Youth Disability Summit

The Nordic Youth Disability Summit is the Nordic Council of Ministers' annual collaboration meetings with youth disability organisations. The aim of the meetings is to strengthen the perspectives of children and youth in Nordic cooperation on disability issues.

The Nordic Programme for Cooperation on Disability Issues 2023–2027 lays out the Nordic Council of Ministers’ cooperation strategy for disability. The programme includes an annual meeting of experts with representatives of interest groups for young people with disabilities in order to strengthen the perspective of children and young people in the Nordic cooperation on disability issues.

Youth disability organisations met in Copenhagen in October 2023 to discuss current issues and challenges and identify areas of cooperation. The Nordic Youth Disability Summit is a meeting between the Nordic Council of Ministers and young people with disabilities and will take place on an annual basis from 2023 to 2027.

During the summit the representatives of organisations for young people with disabilities prepared statements on relevant themes about Nordic cooperation on disability and contributed to formulating recommendations in a Nordic project on the right of children and young people to be heard. 

“We need a stronger youth perspective in Nordic collaboration on disability issues”

“We need more flexibility in working life”

“We need clear information on accessibility when travelling in the Nordic region – and more flexibility when it comes to assistance”

The summit showed that youth disability organisations want to play a more active role in Nordic cooperation. The representatives proposed that youth representatives should be included in the Council of Nordic Cooperation on Disability. The summit was an important step in gathering the youth organisations, creating connections between them and laying a foundation for future cooperation.

The evaluation showed that the first Nordic Youth Disability Summit held in Copenhagen in October 2023 represented a significant step towards strengthening cooperation between youth organisations. The summit provided an opportunity for the representatives of the different organisations to share their experiences of organisational work and political issues. As a result of the summit, the representatives were given a Nordic network and have taken the initiative to create a digital meeting place. This is an important step towards fostering collaboration and communication between youth organisations in the Nordic region.

The 2024 summit will be planned in such a way that the representatives of youth disability organisations will attend one of the two annual meetings of the Council of Nordic Cooperation on Disability.