The National Youth Rights Association is the nation’s premier youth rights organization. NYRA is a youth-led national non-profit organization dedicated to fighting for the civil rights and liberties of young people. In the grand tradition of the civil rights movements in the past, we seek to write a new chapter, and create a world where people are not judged by their birth date, but by the content of their character. Our mission centers on challenging age discrimination against young people, both in law and in attitudes. Many of the basic freedoms afforded to Americans in the Bill of Rights are withheld from youth, and not without troubling consequences for both youth and society as a whole. NYRA has members in all 50 states, over 7,000 in total, and chapters from coast to coast. We work to lower the voting age, lower the drinking age, repeal curfew laws, protect student rights, and fight against ageism where ever we see it. NYRA is registered in the State of Maryland as a non-profit corporation. Decisions are made by a Board of Directors (BOD), with advice from a Board of Advisors (BOA). Day-to-day operations are handled by the officers and staff, who are led by our President and Executive Director and accomplish much of the grunt work keeping this organization together. The corporate officers and staff are hired by the Board of Directors, who are in turn voted into office by the membership during an annual election. The board of directors ranges in age from 15 to 30+. Please also check out what we believe and what we've done. Most of NYRA's energy and activism takes place on the grassroots level. For information on our many dynamic chapters, please check out our chapter page. NYRA's online community is also very important to us, for that check out our active web forums.

the politics of youth Youth Rights is an intense and far-reaching philosophy. NYRA is just one organ of Youth Rights. The NYRA Board of Directors (BOD) meets both online and in person to make the major policy and legal decisions for the membership. One of their duties is to devise Policy Papers - official documents stating NYRA's stance on certain issues. They can't and don't cover every issue out there, nor do they only cover the issues which are on NYRA's forefront. They choose to cover the issues which are sensitive, and where the Board feels NYRA should have a specific stance (or should not, as is in some cases). In brief, NYRA believes that the voting age and drinking age should be lowered to a more acceptable age that would treat youth more fairly. NYRA is opposed to age discrimination, juvenile curfew laws, and Gulag schools or behavior modification facilities. The organization believes that such concepts as driving, education, emancipation, entertainment and free speech should be structured to treat youth fairly and not to discriminate against them with prejudice.

a brief synopsis.... Since NYRA was incorporated in 1998, we have contributed many accomplishments and work to the youth rights movement. To name only a few things that have been done lately, -NYRA convinced the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to endorse legislation allowing cities to lower the local voting age. -NYRA released a study with Dr. Mike Males that shows that teenage drivers are safer than what many think. -NYRA members in California joined together to try to convince the Democratic Party to support a lower voting age. -NYRA has appeared on ABC News, CNN, Fox News, and on many local radio shows and newspapers promoting the youth rights movement. -NYRA member, Adam King, is working to add a student advisor onto his local board of education to provide more representation to the student body. -NYRA began paying its executive director full time. For more accomplishments, go to our complete list at www.youthrights.org