Priorities

We are passionate youth representatives! We need to claim our SPACE and work together for:

1. A strong Membership Strategy, developed in line with our overarching objectives, with tailored and adaptable support to the challenges faced by members.  

To support this, we need to:

• Create a standard for intermediate measures in support of our membership, to help and assist our members with reaching their full potential and navigating challenging periods, in collaboration with experts or other organisations from within our network;

• Compile and further develop the concrete measures for membership, to follow-up on the adoption of the Strategic Plan 2024-2028, starting from already-existing good practices. Translating the thematic focus on the “recognition of National Youth Councils (NYCs) and International Non-Governmental Youth Organisations (INGYOs)”, into measures of support ensures the protection of our civic spaces from within;

• Increase the outreach of YFJ to countries where we do not have members yet, and to organisations from diverse backgrounds, to create a roadmap fostering collaboration for a gradual inclusion in the membership, as in the case of the Western Balkans;

2. Maintaining a network that is effective and impactful in advocacy, hand-in-hand with our members. 

To support this, we need to:

• Strengthen the overall cooperation on policy areas, such as coordinating closely during events we attend together, sharing the main advocacy points, understanding the concrete role each stakeholder needs to have, and having a common strategic approach with our members; 

• Have a deeper organisational reflection on integrating members from continental Europe and with diverse expertise in our advocacy efforts, including in our events, through diversified and targeted fundraising;

3. Prioritising a rights-based approach to youth policy and recognising youth rights as a strategic investment in shaping the future of international human rights mechanisms.

To support this, we need to:

• Recognise the universal recognition of youth rights as overarching for our strategic priorities. In a turbulent international environment, with anti-rights and anti-democratic sentiments on the rise, young people need to claim the space and shape the human rights landscape according to their needs;

• Lead the efforts to organising a fully youth-led process for the development of a UN Convention on Youth Rights, through an inclusive process that takes into account specific continental realities of young people;

• Monitor the relevant international and European human rights spaces and advocate for the accountability towards standards European countries committed to;

• Strengthen the collaboration with youth stakeholders globally, including member states and institutional actors, such as OHCHR, UN Youth Office, UN Youth Delegates, ECtHR, AC and others, with the support of the new Experts Group on Youth Rights;

Transversal priorities:

• Conduct regular impact evaluations of our policies, including the Policy Programme and Safeguarding Policy, to drive continuous improvement through qualitative analysis;

• Foster organisational transparency in partnership with the board, secretariat, members, and statutory bodies, ensuring ongoing efforts to enhance transparency in all processes.