Youth- and student-led movements have a long and proud history of organising themselves, many long before most INGOs and even the United Nations. Yet too often when students and young people are invited to policy-making forums and processes, collective and democratic youth- and student-led groups are ignored in favour of token individuals. This approach undermines the self-organised leadership of students and young people, risks co-option by governments and other organisations and often means their engagement is unrepresentative of their peers.  

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Survivors of injustice have already faced extreme exclusion and not listening to and learning from their experiences is yet another failure of those with decision-making power over their lives. However, even when survivor-advocates are included, this inclusion can often be patronising, voyeuristic or tokenistic. Instead of participating as equal stakeholders, survivor-advocates are usually asked only to recount the most traumatic or difficult moments of their lives in short speeches and not engaged meaningfully as lived-experience experts with valuable demands and solutions.