On September 21st and 22nd, Fondation Botnar et un Restless Development will host the very first Youth Power Summit, coinciding with the UN’s Summit of the Future Action Days. A space to connect and collaborate, the summit will bring together young people, policymakers, officials, and civil society organisation (CSO) representatives to discuss how we can increase meaningful youth participation in global leadership and policymaking. We believe this event offers a great opportunity to continue the conversation we began as an ImPACT Coalition on Peacebuilding in Nairobi. 

As part of the Summit, Interpeace will be running a session called "Institutionalising Civil Society Engagement with the UN" on Saturday, September 21, from 13:30 to 14:30 at the Blue Gallery in NY. This session aims to explore strategies for how youth-led engagement can help rethink peace, enhance resilience, and institutionalising youth and civil society involvement in multilateral systems. The purpose of the session will be to: 

1. Explore and discuss strategies to enhance young people's engagement with the multilateral system. How can institutionalising civil society engagement with the UN help to build the trustworthiness of these global institutions. 
2. Delve into the reasons why ambitious policy frameworks, such as UNSCR 2250 and subsequent YPS resolutions, have not been effectively implemented, and explore what can be done to bridge this gap. What do young people feel is missing from these efforts, and how can their perspectives be better integrated into the process to ensure meaningful change?

1. Summary and Purpose

Event Overview:

It is almost a decade since the passage of UNSCR 2250, the first UNSC resolution on youth peace and security (YPS) and over five years after the publication of the YPS Progress Study: The Missing Peace. Since then, two more Resolutions have been passed on YPS (UNSCR 2419 and UNSCR 2535). However, the global YPS agenda is still primarily defined by the chasm between policy and implementation, and between rhetorical commitments to localisation on one hand, and absence of meaningful investment in it, on the other. Policy ambition and rhetorical commitments to YPS national action plans (NAPs) have rarely been implemented, with a few exceptions. Where NAPs or YPS coalitions are developed at national level, these processes often either pay lip-service to meaningful youth and civil society participation, or exclude them. 

Addressing the mistrust young people have of their governments and multilateral institutions, was a primary objective of the YPS agenda and UNSCR 2250. Yet with democracy and human rights in retreat globally and the growing perception that electoral democracy is failing young women and men, the trust deficit experienced by marginalised youth is expanding. This is aggravated by a crisis of multilateralism manifest in the near helplessness of multilateral institutions in the face of super-power intransigence or indifference in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Ethiopia, Myanmar, and more. This is compounded by mistrust of economies that exclude young people in the face of growing horizontal inequality, within and between countries. The cumulative effect lends itself to anti-democratic leaders claiming they represent young people’s interests as they plot or implement unconstitutional coups against governments which are failing youth, or resort to military instead of political solutions to conflict, in which youth are the primary conscripts and victims. Consequences are exacerbated by the failure of governments, international CSOs, and multilateral institutions to connect with or harness youth-led social movements, on climate change, fighting systemic racism, and articulating anti-war and gun control aspirations, among others. 

Young people are already making powerful demands for change. In particular, they make up the bulk of the leadership of global social movements that are on the front line in the existential fight against climate change, as well as in the struggles for human security, inclusive, legitimate, and accessible justice mechanisms (be they customary, formal, or transitional), and the fight against social inequality. Delayed action on these crucial concerns will likely rob future generations of their prospects for peace. Furthermore, their actions are inspiring hope for the future, pushing for improvements in systems that can otherwise appear resistant or slow to change. As such, we must recognise, cultivate, and include the vital change agency of the young people who play such a dynamic leadership role beyond the confines of traditional institutions. The social movements they occupy and mobilise need to be heard and embraced, rather than treated as threatening or negatively disruptive of the status quo. These youth-driven initiatives, often overlooked, are redefining the contours of the peacebuilding field. As envisaged in the UN’s The Missing Peace: Independent Progress Study on Youth, Peace, and Security, young people will need to be at the forefront of these societal transformations.  

⁠Young people are often more active and represented in civil society and community-based organisations than in formal government structures. The YPS agenda has highlighted a significant mistrust between young people and their governments, with both sides often viewing each other with suspicion. This issue is further compounded by the broader problem of CSOs being marginalised or tokenised within the multilateral system. Given that many young peacebuilders primarily find their place within CSOs rather than being represented by their governments (and many young people also exist outside of any of these organisational vehicles), it is crucial to institutionalise civil society engagement with the UN from a youth perspective. As one key measure to ensure that the voices of young people, especially those who would otherwise go unheard, are truly integrated into the multilateral system, it is essential to reinforce and institutionalise the role of CSOs within the UN. 

Current global trends present a ‘dangerous opportunity’ and demand creative responses. Many evolving multilateral policy platforms continue to emphasise the role of youth and of future generations. This is true of the New Agenda for Peace, the UN SG’s Our Common Agenda, as well as the Summit/Pact for the Future and the associated Declaration for Future Generations, as well as the forthcoming 2025 UN Peacebuilding Architecture Review (PBAR). It is essential that we articulate, invest in, and believe in, the critical role of youth-led engagement with the UN, to help us “rethink peace”, enhance resilience for peace, reinvent the prevention of violent conflict, and re-imagine the social contract - nationally and internationally. 

Purpose: 

This session aims to explore strategies for how youth-led engagement can help rethink peace, enhance resilience, and institutionalising youth and civil society involvement in multilateral systems. The purpose of the session will therefore be to: 

1. Explore and discuss strategies to enhance young people's engagement with the multilateral system. How can institutionalising civil society engagement with the UN help to build the trustworthiness of these global institutions. 
2. Delve into the reasons why ambitious policy frameworks, such as UNSCR 2250 and subsequent YPS resolutions, have not been effectively implemented, and explore what can be done to bridge this gap. What do young people feel is missing from these efforts, and how can their perspectives be better integrated into the process to ensure meaningful change?