Youth, Peace & Security
Secondly, the recommendations underlined the importance to respond to immediate needs of protection, support and (re)integration care of youth facing violence, affected by conflict, or being displaced. In every conflict, support should be provided to young people recognising their age-specific, group-specific, and individual needs. Throughout their in-depth discussions, Delegates recognised severe consequences of the ongoing war of Ukraine for its young generation. In their calls to action, they highlight contextually relevant responses as well as general predicaments, given that each conflict should receive equal amount of attention and a specific response through adjusted actions.
Strengthening the role of young people and youth engagement, builds on the key concern of the G7 youth engagement process, which was reflected in the high motivation and engagement of Youth7 to amend their work programme. First and foremost, Delegates called for a recognition of the vital role of youth in building peace and sustaining demo- cratic processes. Youth, Peace & Security asks to improve youth participation on all levels, in a meaningful way and across the political agenda. Under the co-leadership of youth organisations and with the G7 members taking on a leading role, YPS must be supported in its further institutionali- sation and implementation on national and inter- national level.
Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) refers to the ensemble of intergovernmental civil-society-led efforts to advance young people’s role for peace. Changing the narrative surrounding youth from perpetrators or victims to agents of change and partners in peace, the YPS agenda consists of the five pillars: participation, protection, prevention, partnership, and reintegration. Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) has most recently developed a comprehensive framework the adoption of the UN Security Council (SC) resolutions 2250 (2015), 2419 (2018) and 2535 (2020). Yet neither a joint formal recognition by the G7 nor a systemic approach to implementing the resolutions has been adopted. Throughout 2022, Youth7 called for a serious debate to be held on youth in peace and human security and later welcomed to see the young generation referred to in pledges to the recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine.
#YOUTH4PEACE – AN UNEXPLORED POTENTIAL FOR THE G7
strong and comprehensive recommendations to draw attention to the implementation of and key demands of the Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agenda. A Track on Youth, Peace and Security was added to the Youth7 Summit 2022 working schedule shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The unprece- dented attention since directed at concerns of peace and security by the G7 emerged as an oppor- tunity – if not a necessity – to advocate for young people’s role in this agenda. For the first time since the adoption of UN Security Council resolution 2250 (2015), YPS was included in the Youth7 process.
Paul Klahre
Young people’s key role for peace and security translates into opportunities for conflict preven- tion, conflict resolution, sustaining peace and ulti- mately human security. While it remained almost invisible to the G7, the Youth7 Summit 2022 issued
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