Sarah Meijer is Youth Representative in the Dutch delegation to the CSW70

19-01-2026
For many years, the Netherlands, in collaboration with WO=MEN, has included an NGO representative in the official delegation to the UN Women's Summit: the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). However, this year marks only the second time that a Youth Representative will also be included in the delegation. Sarah Meijer will fulfill this role this year, in collaboration with CHOICE for Youth & Sexuality. She succeeds Fenna Timsi of the Dutch Youth Council (NJR).
 
Sarah Meijer is a social scientist with a dual master's degree in Political Communication and Social Challenges, Policies & Interventions. In her academic work, Sarah focuses on political campaigns, election results, and populism. She pays particular attention to how gender roles and stereotyping influence political legitimacy, power relations, and representation. She also works at the intersection of gender, politics, and sexual health. Her research on HIV, PrEP use, and romantic and sexual exclusion was presented at the International AIDS Conference and is currently under peer review. 

In addition to her academic work, Sarah is active as Youth Project Coordinator at Stichting STAD. In her daily practice, she guides youth-led social initiatives from idea to implementation. She supports young people in developing projects on gender equality, safety, and mental health, including femicide prevention, through education at vocational schools, campaigns on safety in public transport, and building local women's communities. The core of her work is to empower young people not only to make their voices heard, but to actually influence their environment and future.
 
This practice forms the basis of her commitment to the 70th CSW (CSW70). According to Sarah, access to justice is only meaningful when young people not only have formal rights, but also feel supported by the system that is supposed to protect those rights. When constitutional procedures feel inaccessible or discouraging, many rights violations remain invisible and unreported. This creates a situation in which transgressive behavior or rights violations can continue, while young people should instead feel that they are allowed to set boundaries and that the constitutional state supports and affirms them in doing so. 

As long as young people feel that reporting is pointless, that the system is too complicated, or that the responsibility is implicitly placed on them, the norm will not change. Structural change therefore requires systems that recognize, follow up, and protect, and that make it clear that what is happening is unacceptable. 

"Young people need to not only know that they have rights, but also feel that they are allowed to exercise them. That they can set boundaries and that the system will support them when they do so. Without that experience, too much remains under the radar and too little changes,” says Sarah. 

During the CSW70, Sarah will focus on access to justice - this year's CSW priority theme - as a process of empowerment, in which access and follow-up together determine whether rights actually have meaning. She will contribute the experiences of young people with the aim of contributing to sustainable policy change. 

Sarah has a strong international orientation and has lived, studied, and worked in Spain, Turkey, and Australia. The combination of academic analysis, practical experience with young people, and international orientation forms a solid basis for her role as Youth Representative to the CSW.