People under 25 make up almost 50 percent of the world’s population. In many countries such as India, Niger, and Uganda, children under 18 make up more than half of the nation’s population. Yet, representation of the youth voice is still deficient in all aspects of politics and international relations. The field prides itself on its diversity by including marginalized voices into the equation, such as feminist international relations. However, this attention should not be given only to the gender and race dimension of the participants. It should also take age groups into consideration for a generationally-oriented analysis of different motivations and needs.
The practice of international relations is ageist, and there is an urgent need for practitioners to implement corrective steps.
The young people of today have a new strength. They are interconnected through media and have access to unlimited sources of information that allow them to question the status quo and mobilize groups. This generation has grown up in a global state of financial crisis, unemployment, and technology. And like many other critical aspects of international relations, the youth voice is an overlooked viewpoint that brings to light issues that the ruling elites do not consider urgent.
In the past 20 years, youth-led revolutions have transformed political agendas, overthrown dictators, destroyed communist regimes, and led social change. In 2008, students took part in creating the Democratic Movement in Mozambique. In 2010, youth played a central role in sparking protest movements across the Middle East, known as the Arab Spring. The Indignados movement in 2011 had its origins in a social network of youth. The student demonstrations in Venezuela and Nicaragua in 2017 through 2018 have stirred up protests to overthrow dictatorships. In all of these examples, youth have sacrificed their education, future, security, and lives in order to challenge traditional authority and fight for freedom, for themselves and their nations. Their literal “blood, sweat, and tears” have been poured in the process. But after the momentum of the movements die down, the youth vision is put aside and becomes clouded by adult corruption and hunger for power.
Recent student movements in the United States, such as the Never Again Movement, Black Lives Matter, and the court case against the U.S. Government for environmental sustainability, have placed the youth voice in the spotlight. But awareness is not enough. Youth need the power and opportunity to input their views in the decision-making process, and to work with world leaders to shape their future. This problem is difficult to change because an ageist culture is one that has been engrained in society forever. Fortunately, there are ways to include youth in the equation.
I am currently a Youth Advisory Board member at Plan International USA that focused on children’s rights and equality for girls. As board members, a network of youth works directly with Plan’s decision-makers to shape the advocacy agenda and efforts to fight for the causes that matter to the youth. Major international decision-making bodies, such as the United Nations, the European Union, and the World Trade Organization, as well as NGOs, should follow this approach and implement youth boards within their organizations. These boards should include diverse individuals from all races, genders, and socioeconomic backgrounds with access to share youth’s perspective with leaders on issues to be addressed in society, as well as solutions to those challenges. In the United States, youth boards can also be implemented at different levels of government, starting with town councils, then county and state, and finally, at the federal level.
Youth boards are not the solution to all problems. They are merely one of many ways world leaders can listen and value the youth voice. With climate change, the rise of natural disasters, conflicts and worldwide increase in food insecurity, the future is in jeopardy. Young people should have the power to influence the necessary actions that will deviate the world’s current destructive path and secure a better future for the next generation.
