Commitments to the Amman Youth Declaration: Moving Forward
The Amman Youth Declaration was one of the expected outcomes of the Global Forum on Youth, Peace and Security, that took place in Jordan, 21-22 August, under the Patronage of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II. The Declaration represents not the end of the event, but the beginning of a path towards a new international agenda on youth participation in issues of peace and security.
On the last day of the Forum, youth and non-youth participants have joined five regional commitment roundtables and one global roundtable to discuss priorities for this new agenda at the regional and global level. The forum participants have also presented their personal commitments in an evaluation form. The main goal was to secure concrete commitments from diverse stakeholders in the field, ensuring that further steps will be taken after the Forum for the implementation of the Declaration.
Among non-youth participants, some of the commitments include investing in youth’s capabilities; partnering with young people and youth-led organizations to support their activities; fighting for gender equality and being gender sensitive. Regarding the youth participants, some of them committed to translate the Declaration into their local language, so that their community and organization can take ownership of the document. According to Luka Gotsiridze, a 17 year old peacebuilder from Georgia, “[the Declaration] will gain no attention of local authorities, if it is not translated first”. Currently, the document is available in English and Arabic, but soon it will also be possible to download versions in French, Russian, Malagasy, Somali and more!
The participants also strengthened their own network and decided to cooperate with other young peacebuilders from their region in the implementation of the Amman Youth Declaration. The Sudanese parties, for instance, are launching the declaration on the national level through an online and offline campaign called #IAdopt. UNOY intends to support initiatives like this one by producing a “launching pack”, which will be available soon!
The commitments also include advocating and lobbying for the implementation of the Declaration on the local, national and regional level. Activists have already or intend to meet government representatives, policy-makers, CSOs, development agencies and the media to spread the message of youth as peacebuilders. As a result, the Amman Youth Declaration has been featured in newspapers and webpages from all over the world!
Another strategy to reach the goals stated in the Declaration is to organize events that promote a culture of peace. Some participants committed to organizing forums, open debates, training programs, formal and non-formal education campaigns, among others. Those events aim to “increase the awareness of young people and harness their abilities in leadership”, according to the Syrian peacebuilder Abd Alkareem Alhriri.
UNOY supports those initiatives and encourages other peacebuilders around the world to be inspired by them. That is why we will be sharing some of those commitments on twitter (@unoy_peace) in the next few weeks. Young peacebuilders are also invited to write a guest post for our blog giving insights on their actions shaping a new international agenda on youth, peace and security and on the role of the Amman Youth Declaration in their own advocacy work.
In the next few weeks, we will share with you commitments from #GFYPS participants. Stay tuned! #youth4peace pic.twitter.com/c9BhmOfjXo
— UNOY Peacebuilders (@unoy_peace) October 1, 2015