A National Youth Council is a representative body made up of youth organizations and young people in a particular state or nation. Many were formed after the Second World War to attend the World Festival of Youth and later the World Assembly of Youth.
Many National Youth Councils receive funding from the government in which they operate and are affiliated with a regional federation:
Regional federations may be part of the International Coordination Meeting of Youth Organisations (ICMYO) and cooperate in the form of the Global Cooperation Coordination Committee (GCCC).[ clarification needed ]
The World Organization of the Scout Movement is the largest international Scouting organization. WOSM has 174 members. These members are recognized national Scout organizations, which collectively have around 43 million participants. WOSM was established in 1922, and has its operational headquarters at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and its legal seat in Geneva, Switzerland. It is the counterpart of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS).
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or national level are not considered councils. At such levels, there may be no separate executive branch, and the council may effectively represent the entire government. A board of directors might also be denoted as a council. A committee might also be denoted as a council, though a committee is generally a subordinate body composed of members of a larger body, while a council may not be. Because many schools have a student council, the council is the form of governance with which many people are likely to have their first experience as electors or participants.
The International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) is an international liberal youth organization. It consists of a global membership of national youth organizations. These are often but not exclusively affiliated with political parties that are members of Liberal International.
The World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) is a federation of autonomous national Student Christian Movements (SCM) forming the youth and student arm of the global ecumenical movement. The Federation includes Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic students.
The European Scout Region is one of six geographical subdivisions of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with a satellite office in Brussels, Belgium.
The Asia-Pacific Scout Region is the divisional office of the World Scout Bureau of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, headquartered in Makati, Philippines, with satellite offices in Australia and Japan. The Asia-Pacific Region services Scouting in the land area of Asia south of Siberia and east of Central Asia, eastern Eurasia including Russia and the bulk of the Pacific Basin, with the exception of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau, which are under the Interamerican Region by way of the Aloha Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
The World Federation of Independent Scouts (WFIS) is a non-governmental international Scouting organization with over 7 million members in 151 affiliated Scout organizations in 65 countries. WFIS was formed in Laubach, Germany, in 1996 by Lawrie Dring, a British Scouter with the independent Baden-Powell Scouts' Association (BPSA).
There have been American Scouts overseas since almost the inception of the movement, often for similar reasons as the present day. Within the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), these expatriate Scouts are now served by two overseas Councils and the Direct Service program. Within the Girl Scouts of the USA, the USAGSO serves such a purpose.
The International Falcon Movement – Socialist Educational International (IFM-SEI) is an international non-profit organisation based in Belgium that campaigns for children's rights. It is a fraternal organisation of Socialist International and works closely with International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) and Young European Socialists. IFM-SEI is a full member of the European Youth Forum (YFJ) which operates within the Council of Europe and European Union area and works closely with both these bodies. In Latin-America it is a full member of the Foro Latin-America de Juventud (FLAJ). It is also part of the International Coordination Meeting of Youth Organisations (ICMYO) which consists of worldwide active youth organisations and regional youth platforms coordinating their activities towards the UN and its agencies.
Scouting in Russia comprises several dozen Scout associations, based on religion, politics and geography.
Lutheranism is present on all inhabited continents with an estimated 80 million adherents, out of which 74.2 million are affiliated with the Lutheran World Federation. A major movement that first began the Reformation, it constitutes one of the largest Protestant branches claiming around 80 million out of 920 million Protestants. The Lutheran World Federation brings together the vast majority of Lutherans. Apart from it, there are also other organisations such as the International Lutheran Council and the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference, as well as multiple independent Lutheran denominations.
The World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) is the international governing body for pool. It was formed in 1987, and was initially headed by a provisional board of directors consisting of representatives from Australia, Americas, Africa, and Europe. As of 2023, the WPA president is Ishaun Singh of South Africa. It is an associate of the World Confederation of Billiards Sports (WCBS), the international umbrella organization that encompasses the major cue sports.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is the world's largest trade union federation.
Non-aligned Scouting organizations is a pejorative term used by the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) and their member national organizations to refer to Scouting organizations that are not affiliated with them. The term is used to suggest a WOSM and WAGGGS centric view of the Scout Movement that WOSM, WAGGGS and their affiliates are somehow aligned to the Scout Movement and normative or “mainstream” while other Scout organization are “non-aligned”. See List of non-aligned Scouting organizations.
The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries.
The International Catholic Conference of Scouting (ICCS) is an autonomous, international body committed to promoting and supporting Catholic Scout associations and to be a link between the Scout movement and the Catholic Church. Its headquarters is located in Rome, Italy.
Pax Romana is an international lay Catholic movement. It combines the representation of two movements with similar interests and goals, the International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs and the International Movement of Catholic Students. These two groups operate independently, but share the common name of Pax Romana in representation at the United Nations and UNESCO.
The Global Greens (GG) is an international network of political parties and movements which work to implement the Global Greens Charter. It consists of various national green political parties, partner networks, and other organizations associated with green politics.
Youth councils or parliaments, are a form of youth voice engaged in community decision-making. Youth councils are appointed bodies that exist on local, state, provincial, regional, national, and international levels among governments, non governmental organisations (NGOs), schools, and other entities. Groups that include children often call themselves children's parliaments and are paired with youth parliaments of older kids.