In 2016, an estimated 408 million youths (aged 15–29) resided in settings affected by armed conflict or organized violence. This means that at least one in four young people is affected by violence or armed conflict in some way. Estimates of direct conflict deaths in 2015 suggest that more than 90 per cent of all casualties involved young males.

In 2018 the UN published a detailed study focusing on youth, peace and security: “The Missing Peace: Independent Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security.”

This report based on a comprehensive participatory research stresses the importance of breaking one-sided stereotypes of youth as security risks. It recommends recognizing the huge and often underestimated potential of young peoples as changemakers for peace.

These recommendations reconfirm the intervention strategies of terre des hommes schweiz in its youth violence program for Latin American countries. In Latin America, young men aged 15-29 make up 50% of all homicide victims. This high homicide rates can be explained by young men’s involvement in high-risk illicit activities such as street crime, gang membership, drug consumption and easily accessible firearms.

Stigmatization and negative stereotyping of youth

In many countries, the public discourse and mainly the media focus on characterizing youth as a risk to society. Especially in Central America, and also in other parts of Latin America, specific groups of young people and, to a certain degree, the younger generation as a whole are socially constructed as a threat to public security. In particular, the members of youth gangs (so called maras) are constructed as the number-one menace to the security of the whole region. In many Latin-American countries, governments and political leaders systematically shape perceptions of youth violence for political ends. Especially in electoral campaigns, politicians reinforce these stereotypes on violent youth in a manipulative way in order to promote themselves as “mano dura” (hard hand). Lurid media coverage furthermore sustains these public discourses. Hard-fisted law enforcement and security approaches are being widely applied across different country contexts, although there is mounting evidence that measures such as including punitive policing, harsh sentencing and mass incarceration are counter-productive. These policies are also simply not cost-effective and divert fund away from social services that are necessary to tackle the drivers of violence.

According to the young people consulted in the UN Progress Study, concerns about youth and violence result in policy responses that denigrate and often repress the legitimate participation of youth in political processes, social movements, peaceful protest and expressions of dissent. The extremely violent repression of mass protests of youths in Nicaragua in 2018 has been the most recent and explicit example of closing civic spaces for the voices of youth and delegitimizing them as “terrorists”.

Youth agency for positive peace

In its violence prevention program terre des hommes schweiz aims at contributing to a deconstruction of simplistic discourses that stigmatize young people in general as troublemakers and associate youth with violence. The project interventions implemented by local community-based partner organizations strengthen the potentials and peacebuilding capacities of young people and evidence their positive contributions to society.

The project Juventude Negra e Participação Política (Black youth and political participation) of the Brazilian partner organization Cipó is a best practice experience how youth participation approaches contribute to social inclusion and consequently to violence prevention. Cipó trains Afro-Brazilian youth multipliers in Favelas in Salvador (Bahia) who are active in different youth groups. With an intensive leadership training, marginalized youth are empowered to be actors of change in their communities characterized by high violence and exclusion.

In this context, young black men are facing strong negative stereotypes as potential security risks. Especially police actors perceive them as suspicious just because they are black and poor. Police violence is a commonplace. Consequently, these socially excluded young people feel hopeless, isolated and powerless. The burden of constant discrimination makes them insecure; often they internalize a self-perception of marginalization.

Therefore the project developed a comprehensive leadership training to empower black youths to stand up for their rights. This training aims at sensitizing the young favela youth to get an understanding of existing societal hierarchies, the historic roots of racism and social exclusion, the concepts of structural and institutional violence. This training lays the basis of knowledge and skills development and fosters interest and motivation of youth in organizing themselves to become agents of change.

As a first step, the group process focuses on personal development, enhancing self-understanding and self-worth by group discussions on black identity and affirmative action using artistic and cultural activities.

Apart from outcomes related to strengthened cultural and personal identity, the training also puts a lot of emphasis on improving communication and technical skills of the young leaders. Through media training (video, writing, photography, and online communication), they learn how to make their voice be heard by a broad audience. In the training, they learn how to politically claim their rights and counter the injustice they experience on a daily basis.

Overall, the youth leadership training enhances the participants’ leadership capabilities, communication skills, self-reflection and cultural identity. This is the basis for the young actors of change to get active in their communities and multiply their learnings among their peers and in the broader community. Youths who are involved in community activities are appreciated as role models for other young people. As their cultural activities get a lot of visibility, the whole community changes its views on these youth activists. Through music, theater and dance, the young leaders express their positive resilience.

Because of the enhanced visibility of young people’s concerns in the public sphere, decision makers start to listen to young people’s voices. Youths are invited to participate in decision-making spaces on a local level, e.g. local youth councils. Through active political participation and networking, organized youths are perceived as relevant political actors in violence prevention policy development. Youth are taken seriously. Consequently, violence prevention policy debates are more youth-sensitive.

These political empowerment- and sensitization aspects of the project can be conceptualized in three levels:

– ‘Power within’ involves working with poor and excluded youths and their communities to make them aware of their rights and to strengthen their ability to undertake a collective analysis of the ways in which their rights are being denied. (raising consciousness)

– ‘Power with’ focuses on building solidarity among young rights holders through alliance and platform building (youth groups), mobilizing supporters and networking. (mobilization for collective action)

– ‘Power to’ aims to enhance the ability of young rights holders to effectively campaign and advocate for changes in policies and practices (participation in policy or political processes, participation in councils, youth forums, parliamentary hearings).

By working on these different levels terre des hommes schweiz recognizes and fosters the vast potential of young people to build more peaceful and inclusive societies. Partner organisations identify extraordinary young people who creatively are seeking innovative ways to prevent violence and consolidate peace in contexts of increasing social polarization.