May 25, 2018, New Delhi --- It may have been early on a Friday morning, but the 100 plus youth who attended the launch of #YouthWagingPeace—Action Guidelines for the Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) were raring to go with ideas, questions and tangible action points for PVE.

“Policies need to be influenced by what is already happening and not theories,” opined Lezerine Mashaba, a YESPeace partner from South Africa highlighting that young people are not taken seriously unless there is a mass movement.

Dr. Karan Singh, chair of the governing board of UNESCO MGIEP alluded to this as being at the core of UNESCO MGIEP’s #YouthWagingPeace guidebook and Action guidelines.

“This guidebook is MGIEP’s way of spearheading a movement of young people devoted to peace.”

Underscoring the need for action-oriented guidelines, H.E Ms. Harinder Sidhu, High Commissioner to India, Australian High Commission in New Delhi said,

“The #YouthWagingPeace Action Guidelines helps individuals and communities to build tools such as critical thinking, resilience, compassion and respect for diversity which they need to challenge extremist ideologies.”

The Action Guidelines for Prevention of Violent Extremism which is a derivative of #YouthWagingPeace Guidebook (released in 2017), highlights strategies for implementation and immediate action for all the relevant stakeholders including policymakers, educators, school administrators, religious leaders and families for the prevention of violent extremism. It is a culmination of the effort of reaching out to 2000+ youth and integrating 130+ submissions from 57 countries.

Talking about the importance of inclusive peace-making processes as a pre-emptive measure against extremism, Shreya Jani of Standing Together to Enable Peace (STEP) said, “When youth are marginalised, they feel frustrated and either a) Join someone who provides them with an instant-coffee solution or b) Spend most of their time mindlessly (eg: watching TV shows) posturing about who they are without really knowing who they are.”

The launch was followed by a riveting panel discussion on Youth Action Across Borders which saw panellists such as author and youth activist Gurmehar Kaur from India diving deep into their own experiences on youth empowerment. 

"Young people are more willing to engage with the ideas of revolution than older people because an older generation, simply by virtue of longevity within the system, will have more invested in it. They’ll have more to lose. So it’s really young people who need to decide if what needs to happen is the full destruction of a system rather than an attempt to modify it from within." pointed out Carloyn Nash,  the founder and executive director of the Myanmar Centre for Civic Leadership. 

Addressing the  young audience, Carolyn concluded: "What I really want to say is “Lead the revolution.” But what I mean by that more generally is: trust your instincts about what’s right and wrong. If you are seeking change, and someone tells you there is only one way to do it, a way that you know, that you feel is wrong or out of line with your morals – trust that feeling. Decide for yourself how you need to fight for what you believe in, how you need to stand up for what you know is right."

Summarising his one key message for the youth, Anantha Duraiappah, Director, UNESCO MGIEP said,

“The youth must be at peace with their own cognitive dissonance. They should not shy away from questioning the status quo and speak up for what they believe in.”

Dr Duraiappah announced the International Youth Campaign on Kindness for the SDGs which aims to create a worldwide culture of kindness by collecting at least 250,000 stories of young people who have undertaken specific acts of kindness to achieve the SDGs. The Campaign links the latest research on neuroplasticity, high-quality training in mindfulness, empathy, and compassion, and the energy, large demographic, and digital skills of young people with a ‘cool’ platform to share and interact with inspirational youth.

About the #YouthWagingPeace Action Guidelines for Prevention of Violent Extremism

In 2017, UNESCO MGIEP #YouthWagingPeace guidebook was launched by the Director-General of UNESCO at its 39th General Conference in Paris. The guidebook is unique in that it is a culmination of the effort of reaching out to 2000+ youth and integrating 130+ submissions from 57 countries. The hardwork paid off; not only was the guidebook very well received at the launch but it also created a buzz online with an engaging month-long social media campaign reaching 626000 people on Facebook and Twitter globally.

Ms Tawakkol Karman, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, 2011, summed it by saying, “In a world where young people are largely seen as either the victims or perpetrators of violent extremism, what could be a better or more thunderous statement other than a youth-led guide on prevention of violent extremism through education?”

The French version of abridged publication was launched in April 2018, in Montreal, Canada in collaboration with our Canadian partners, the Center for Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence. 

The launch event of #YouthWagingPeace – Action Guidelines for Prevention of Violent Extremism was preceded by an intensive 3-day workshop for 25 young educators from across India, including three Rohingya youth working for the Rohingya refugee community in India. 

Facilitated by Ms Carolyn Nash, Coordinating Lead Author, #YouthWagingPeace and Mr Simon Kuany, Project Officer, #YouthWagingPeace, the 25 young educators were able to adapt the Action Guidelines and came up with their own context-specific lesson plans for their respective stakeholders (teachers, school administrators, families and policymakers). UNESCO MGIEP will continue to work with these young educators to ensure that the lesson plans are implemented and the outputs reflected/included in the broader #YouthWagingPeace workbook. This workbook will include all the tested lesson plans developed and tried by young participants of #YouthWagingPeace workshops. 

For more information:

Website: http://mgiep.unesco.org/youth-waging-peace 
Download #YouthWagingPeace here: https://bit.ly/2IK6bGI  

Download your copy of the English version of the Action Guidelines here: https://bit.ly/3fVqltS  

Download your copy of the French version of the Action Guidelines here: https://bit.ly/ActionGuidelinesfr 

For Social Media updates:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mgiep/ 

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https://bit.ly/2knyZam 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/UNESCO_MGIEP 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unesco_mgiep/ 

Watch video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4-WCoQltfI