National Youth Rights Association
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The National Youth Rights Association (NYRA) is a youth-led Civil and political rights led by Margin Zheng & Ashawn Dabney-Small President & Vice-President of NYRA organization in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
promoting
youth rights The youth rights movement (also known as youth liberation) seeks to grant the rights to young people that are traditionally reserved for adults, due to having reached a specific age or sufficient maturity. This is closely akin to the notion ...
, with approximately 10,000 members. NYRA promotes the lessening or removing of various legal restrictions that are imposed on young people but not adults, for example, the
drinking age The legal drinking age is the minimum age at which a person can legally consume alcoholic beverages. The minimum age alcohol can be legally consumed can be different from the age when it can be purchased in some countries. These laws vary between ...
,
voting age A voting age is a minimum age established by law that a person must attain before they become eligible to vote in a public election. The most common voting age is 18 years; however, voting ages as low as 16 and as high as 25 currently exist (s ...
, and the imposition of youth
curfew A curfew is a government order specifying a time during which certain regulations apply. Typically, curfews order all people affected by them to ''not'' be in public places or on roads within a certain time frame, typically in the evening and ...
laws.


Youth rights movement

The youth rights movement first utilized the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
in 1991, with the creation of the Y-Rights listserv mailing list. Two members of that original Internet presence, Matthew Walcoff, and Matt Herman began a non-profit organization out of that mailing list known as ASFAR. Not too long after ASFAR was founded, a
Rockville, Maryland Rockville is a city that serves as the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, and is part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. The 2020 census tabulated Rockville's population at 67,117, making it the fifth-largest community in ...
high school student began a youth rights group called YouthSpeak. At the same time, the third youth from Canada, Joshua Gilbert, was starting a youth rights organization for his country, the Canadian Youth Rights Association (CYRA). Walcoff, Herman, Hein, and Gilbert all met through ASFAR, and decided to start a non-profit corporation to help unify the youth rights movement, which at that point consisted of almost a dozen different groups around North America and the world.


Forming NYRA

NYRA's Executive Director from 2000 to 2012 was Alex Koroknay-Palicz. As its key spokesman, he was featured on
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,
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,
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, ''
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'', ''
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'', ''
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'', as well as many others, on youth rights issues such as the voting and drinking ages. In 2012, Koroknay-Palicz stepped down before reemerging in 2015. 2005 was a significant year for NYRA. In late March, Koroknay-Palicz and several NYRA members traveled to Vermont in support of a bill lowering the drinking age to 18. They visited numerous colleges and signed up over 2000 new supporters. They participated in a debate at the Vermont state house, and the event was significantly covered by the media. Meanwhile, in Washington state, a new chapter in
Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. European ...
, testified in support of a state constitutional amendment to lower the state's voting age to sixteen. From February to August 2006, President Adam King led a local campaign to add a nonvoting student adviser onto the Buncombe County (N.C.) Board of Education. His project had the support of the ''
Asheville Citizen-Times The ''Asheville Citizen-Times'' is an American, English language daily newspaper of Asheville, North Carolina. It was formed in 1991 as a result of a merger of the morning ''Asheville Citizen'' and the afternoon ''Asheville Times''. It is owned ...
'' and over 60 faculty members and administrators at his high school. However, in August, the Board of Education rejected his proposal citing that they already had sufficient student input. During his campaign, King made several appearances in the media. By 2006, NYRA's main area of focus was expanding its local chapters. Chapters had increased fivefold between 2003 and 2006. In 2006, the Board of Directors formally established that chapters are separate legal entities. The chapter formation division saw a major restructure near the end of 2006. Previously, the division was divided into five regions with one person assigned to that region. However, the division's management decided to utilize a national pool of representatives working with all intents throughout the nation. In December 2006, NYRA received its first substantial grant from the Babson Foundation. And in January 2007, it began renting an office from
Common Cause Common Cause is a watchdog group based in Washington, D.C., with chapters in 35 states. It was founded in 1970 by John W. Gardner, a Republican, who was the former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the administration of President L ...
in downtown Washington, D.C. In 2008, the organizations changed its slogan from
the last civil rights movement
, in reference to the
youth rights movement The youth rights movement (also known as youth liberation) seeks to grant the rights to young people that are traditionally reserved for adults, due to having reached a specific age or sufficient maturity. This is closely akin to the notion ...
, to "live free, start young." In 2009, NYRA began to take prominent legal action and assert itself as a force for youth and students in
jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...
. The organization filed its first joint amicus curiae brief in Safford v. Redding, a student rights case brought before the United States Supreme Court, its President published an opinion opposing the Barr et al. v. Lafon case in the award-winning
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journal "
the Jurist ''The Jurist: Studies in Church Law and Ministry'' or simply ''The Jurist'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal and the only journal published in the United States devoted to the study and promotion of the canon law of the Catholic Church. It w ...
", and a local chapter filed a lawsuit against the city of West Palm Beach, Florida, in an effort to repeal its curfew, a case which is still ongoing. NYRA co-sponsored the First Annual National Youth Rights Day which occurred on April 14, 2010.
Robert Epstein Robert Epstein (born June 19, 1953) is an American psychologist, professor, author, and journalist. He was awarded a Ph.D. in psychology by Harvard University in 1981, was editor in chief of ''Psychology Today'', and has held positions at sever ...
wrote The Young Person's Bill of Rights for this event.


Governance

NYRA is a
501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...
organization registered as a
nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
corporation in Maryland. It is governed by Margin Zheng & Ashawn Dabney-Small President & Vice-President of NYRA.
National Youth Rights Association official website. Retrieved 06/25/21.


See also

*
Timeline of young peoples' rights in the United States The timeline of young peoples' rights in the United States, including children and youth rights, includes a variety of events ranging from youth activism to mass demonstrations. There is no "golden age" in the American children's rights movement ...
*
Youth suffrage Youth suffrage, or children's suffrage, is the right of youth to vote and forms part of the broader youth rights movement. Until recently Iran had a voting age of 15; Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua have a voting age of 16 ...


References


External links


Official Website

Youth Rights Network

Age of Reason
NYRA's official blog
NYRA forums
{{Authority control Active citizenship Human rights organizations based in the United States Non-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C. Youth organizations based in Washington, D.C. Youth rights organizations based in the United States Youth rights Student rights Ageism Organizations established in 1998 Child welfare activism Student politics Youth-led organizations Law of the United States Juvenile law Alcohol law in the United States 501(c)(3) organizations