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Youth, Peace and Security - Security Council Open VTC
Notwithstanding limited strides in youth empowerment, the world’s young people continue to suffer disproportionately from conflict, poverty and now the most severe effects of COVID-19, experts told the Security Council in a 27 April videoconference meeting, as they urged Governments to make youth a centrepiece of — and active participants in — their pandemic recovery plans.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres sounded alarms about the acute impacts young people around the globe are feeling amid the virus outbreak, from lost jobs to family stress, mental health and other hardships. Outlining the findings of his first report on youth, peace and security (document S/2020/167) since the Council’s adoption of a landmark resolution on the same topic, he said that 1.54 billion young people are out of school. Young refugees, displaced persons and those affected by conflict or disaster face increased vulnerability. Even before COVID-19, one in five young people were already shut out of education, training or employment, and one in four faced violence or conflict. “These frustrations and failures to address them by those in power today fuel declining confidence in political establishments and institutions,” he said.
Despite those hurdles, he emphasized that young people continue to find ways to engage, support each other and demand and drive change. In Colombia, young leaders played a critical role throughout the peace process and had a direct impact on the terms of the country’s 2016 peace agreement. In South Sudan, they are using the online campaign #SouthSudanIsWatching to assert their rights as observers. Meanwhile, as COVID-19 spreads around the globe, youth are keeping communication open within communities, maintaining social cohesion despite physical distancing measures. For example, in Syria, young medical students are helping to build up stocks of medical supplies and are providing critical information through online messaging.
However, he observed, challenges remain, with opportunities for young people’s political participation still inadequate. “It is not surprising to see declining levels of turnout on the part of young voters in the world, reflecting growing dissatisfaction with political establishments,” he said, voicing concern about threats and attacks against young human rights defenders. Countries must address such challenges, beginning with support for young people’s participation, organizations and initiatives; protecting civic spaces; and committing to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis with a massive boost in investment in young people. “The world cannot afford a lost generation of youth, their lives set back by COVID-19 and their voices stifled by a lack of participation,” he said.
Jayathma Wickramanayake, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Youth, said that while many media outlets have spread images of reckless young people going to beaches, pubs and parties in contravention of COVID-19 lockdowns, those headlines do not represent the majority. In fact, many young people are working hard to fight the pandemic and support their communities. Young medical students attended to patients in China and Italy, community peacebuilders in Kenya and Cameroon quickly adapted their work to prepare for the pandemic and Red Cross volunteers ran health awareness campaigns from Jordan to Haiti. “Young people are not only the most resilient, but also the most innovative and resourceful in turbulent times,” she said, adding that youth — born into an interconnected world — understand the importance of solidarity and that no one is safe unless all are safe.
Since 2015, she said, the Secretary-General’s reports to the Council have increasingly underlined the roles being played by young people. Still, more must be done to integrate the youth, peace and security agenda into the United Nations work. She spotlighted a need for more partnerships between youth, civil society groups and Governments, as well as national action plans backed by adequate resources. States should create protection mechanisms for youth activists and ensure flexible and accessible funding. For its part, the Council should consider regular reporting on the implementation of resolutions 2250 (2015) and 2419 (2018) to help translate the youth, peace and security agenda into concrete action. “We cannot afford to lose the trust of young people, the greatest asset and greatest hope we have for a better future,” she stressed.
Olla Al-Sakkaf, a 25-year-old woman representing the United Network of Young Peacebuilders, said her group works to transform power structures so young people can work together on decisions that affect them. What the world is experiencing amid COVID-19 has been her reality since 2015, when war broke out in her native Yemen. Her hometown of Taiz has been under siege since 2016, and people are forced to travel 5 to 6 hours for visits that used to take 10 minutes. She attends more funerals than weddings and wakes up not knowing if she will see the sun again. “I walk in the streets feeling scared to be killed by a landmine, airstrike or stray bullets,” she said, adding: “We face death everywhere and at every moment.” Five years of conflict in Yemen have exhausted not only systems for health, education and the economy, but people themselves.
However, she said, young people in Yemen are doing their best to build a better future. Today they are cleaning public places, raising awareness about COVID-19 and risking their lives to save victims from floods in Aden and Sana’a. Youth groups are providing health centres with sanitizers and helping to train medical staff. “Our efforts are not only in response to the coronavirus, but also to build peace and re-normalize the public life,” she said, while stressing that young people alone cannot bring peace and prosperity to Yemen. Among other things, she urged the Council to enable youth participation in all phases and tracks of the country’s peace talks. Youth, peace and security must remain on the organ’s agenda beyond today’s debate, she stressed, calling for regular reporting by youth briefers on country-specific and thematic topics.
Gatwal Gatkuoth, founder of the Young-Adult Empowerment Initiative, a non-governmental group in South Sudan, recalled his family’s multigenerational experience with conflict, saying his father was born during the first Sudanese civil war. When the second civil war erupted, he was forced to flee his parents’ home, and ended up living and attending school in a refugee camp in Uganda. “For me, peacebuilding has become a necessity,” he said, underscoring his desire to break the cycle of violence for his own children. For that reason, he founded his organization with the aim of strengthening young people’s capacity to create peaceful societies and drive social development. The group works in Uganda’s refugee settlements to help people unlearn violence and negative stereotypes, and it recently helped to create a new coalition of youth-led civil society groups.
“South Sudanese youth are not asking for more policy documents and resolutions, we are asking for proactive involvement of youth in all decision-making levels,” he said. Citing some of the country’s most persistent challenges, he drew attention to interclan revenge killings, cattle raiding and child abductions, noting that violence is only intensified by the availability of small arms and light weapons. The already restricted civil space for youth is shrinking even further amid the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with a lack of access to technology. In that context, he said the Council should support the Unity Government in better enabling young people’s political participation; Member States, international organizations and others must respect, protect and uphold human rights; and youth-led groups must be involved in designing and implementing responsive disengagement, disarmament and reintegration programmes as well as ceasefire monitoring networks.
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