Eirene Suisse is an organization working to promote peace and human rights. As part of our activities, we run projects with and for young people, with our partner organizations. In the countries where we work, it is rare for domestic policies to take account of young people’s specific needs. The situation is even more complicated if they are part of an ethnic or social minority, or in countries plagued by conflict. They are often drawn into crime to survive or help their families, and a lack of guidance can lead them into high-risk behaviors.

To make an enduring change to their situation, Eirene Suisse supports a number of projects based around citizenship: teaching young people their rights and duties as citizens, how to assert their rights constructively and effectively, and giving them the tools to do so, all in a participative way.

On the South Atlantic coast of Nicaragua, in partnership with the MURALES RACCS foundation, this is done through art. Young people meet, talk about the difficulties they are experiencing and what can be done to change their situation. They then express the outcome of their discussions in the form of a mural to cheer up the streets of their town or village. The community and local authorities are invited to discuss the meaning of the mural with the young people. The young members of MURALES RACCS organize themselves through regional networks to pass on suggestions to the local authorities for new laws or for better enforcement of existing laws.

To give feedback in Switzerland on the project, a number of South-North exchanges have been organized in the last few years with an artist and art therapist from the MURALES RACCS foundation. He was able to use the mural technique with groups of young people in the Romandy region of Switzerland.