Journal of Youth, Peace & Security (Issue 1)

New frontiers in Youth, Peace and Security at its 5th Anniversary: From youth voices to youth agency (Issue 1)

The Journal of Youth, Peace and Security is edited, peer-reviewed and published by the members of the YPSRN. While the first issue of the Journal is written entirely by YPSRN members, the second issue of the journal will be open to submission from young authors who would like to publish in relation policy, practice and scholarship of youth and peacebuilding. We encourage young authors to reach out the members of YPSRN as they develop their ideas.

contributions to the first issue

In this first issue of the Journal, contributors deal with the following broad questions. What are the gaps and achievements of the Global YPS agenda at its fifth anniversary? What is your vision for the 10th anniversary of the Global YPS Agenda? 

Contributions to this issue mostly take a critical stance by pinpoint the gap between global policy documents and the peacebuilding challenges young people face. Some articles draw on interviews and focus group discussion with young people in Colombia, Kyrgyzstan and Tunisia. Other articles rely on literature reviews and personal experience in direct action. The articles suggest new directions for the multilateral system, governments and young peacebuilders to move the YPS agenda further and harness the transformative resilience of young people for peace. 

Laura Henao (Center for Research and Popular Education), in her article titled ‘Decolonial feminist peacebuilding from Latin America’, reports on states’ involvement in the instigation and continuation of multiple forms of gender-based violence experienced in Chile and Colombia. Relying on social theorist Boaventura De Sousa Santos’ work, Laura argues that three layers of oppression, namely capitalism, colonialism and patriarchy put young women at risk of violence in their interaction with state institutions. She recommends that the YPS agenda first needs to embrace and support youth movements, raising their voice against these three forms of oppression to truly protect young women from all forms of violence.

In his article, ‘Transformative resilience of young people throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in the Maldives’, Mohamed Hoodh Ibrahim (Maldives Island Conservation Project) takes a critical approach to a youth-specific participation mechanism, namely the National Youth Council in the Maldives. His article demonstrates that though young people played a key role in COVID-19 response and recovery efforts, their demand for transformative change has not been listened to through the National Youth Council. Mohamed’s article reminds us that availability of youth-specific participation mechanisms doesn’t necessarily empower young change-makers but dilutes their ambitions for change especially when these mechanisms are not governed with democratic principles. 

In the following article, Shadi Rouhshahbaz (PeaceMentors) shares similar observations about formal youth inclusion and participation structures. In the article, ‘Youth agency in peacebuilding in post-Jasmine Revolution Tunisia’, the author shows that while young people prefer to stay outside of formal political spaces, they create their own political space and generate new forms of politics to build positive forms of peace. Based on 15 interviews and two focus group discussions with young peacebuilders in Sousse and Tunis, the article sheds light on how the global YPS agenda influenced the peacebuilding landscape in Tunisia. 

Kanatbek Abdiev (independent consultant), in his article titled, ‘Building peace in Central Asia: voices of youth from Kyrgyzstan’, shares key findings from his own research project which evaluates the international peacebuilding interventions targeting young people. Kanatbek draws on the interviews he conducted with participants of international peacebuilding programmes, NGO staff and government representatives. His paper shares that peacebuilding programmes financed by external donors provide personal skills to young people, but it is unclear whether they have any impact on preventing conflicts or building peace. To improve the peacebuilding impact of these programmes, Kanatbek suggests that from planning to evaluation young people should be included as decision-makers. 

In the following article titled, ‘The Climate Crisis is a Form of Violence against Young People’, Cambria C. Khayat (Desmond Tutu Peace Lab) raises critical questions to the member states of the UN Security Council (UNSC). Cambria argues that as UNSC members avoid the hard truth about the devastating impact of climate change, they are doing a disservice to young people and future generations. From Cambria’s perspective, if the UNSC is serious about protecting young people from violence, it should first recognise that not acting on climate change is a form violence against young people and future generations. 

The final article, ‘Finding new ways to mobilise youth for peace in volatile social media landscapes’ by Abiy Shimelis (African Artist Peace Initiative), reports on the ways through which contemporary media and communication technologies interact with conflict dynamics in Ethiopia. Algorithms used by social media companies foster ethnic polarisation and fuel interethnic tensions and violence. Nonetheless, Abiy argues that when peace advocates engage with social media tools carefully, they can still mobilise masses of young people for peace.

Journal of Youth, Peace & Security (Issue 1) (1472 downloads)