A Rights-Based Approach to Youth Inclusion in Public Health Policy

The overall health of the US population has steadily improved over the last century.1 However, this progress has not been experienced equally, indicated by widening health disparities rooted in unfair social, political, and economic arrangements governing people's living conditions.1 Youths have historically been kept at the margins of processes that differentially shape the social contexts patterning their health experiences and potentials. Drawing on examples of youths engaged in public policy in the US state of Maine, we argue that youths have a right to meaningful inclusion in public health policymaking as laid out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Furthermore, we assert that youths' developmental strengths, as seen through the lens of positive youth development (PYD), are uniquely valuable in structural health equity initiatives.