Youth, Peace and Inclusion

Supporting young people in peacebuilding and conflict transformation

The Youth Peace Camp is the flagship activity of the Council of Europe youth sector on promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies. During the camp the participants follow an experiential learning process and acquired competences in the fields of peacebuilding, intercultural learning, dialogue and conflict transformation, within a human rights framework.
The Youth Peace Camp enables the youth sector of the Council of Europe to identify and document challenges faced by young people in conflict regions and to improve its ability to support youth projects in those regions.
 

 Participants

In 2024, the camp should bring together groups of young people from the following regions:

• Cyprus (Greek speaking Cypriots and Turkish speaking Cypriots)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Kosovo* (with a focus on Albanian and Serbian communities)
• South Caucasus (in particular from border regions and ethnic minorities)
• Both banks of the river Nistru/Dniestr.

 Aims and objectives

The Youth Peace Camp engages young people and youth organisations from conflict affected regions in dialogue and peacebuilding activities based on human rights education and intercultural learning during and after the camp.

The objectives of the 2024 Youth Peace Camp are:

• To develop awareness and basic competences (knowledge, skills and attitude) of participants in human rights education, peacebuilding and intercultural learning to enable them to engage in dialogue and confidence-building initiatives with other young people affected by conflict;
• To support mutual learning from experiences of conflict and coping strategies;
• To foster relationship building as a foundation for peacebuilding and dialogue;
• To introduce and share existing youth work practices and experiences of young people working on dialogue and conflict transformation in their home communities;
• To motivate and support participants in their role as multipliers and peer leaders in peacebuilding activities with young people encouraging them to implement follow-up initiatives;
• To strengthen the role of the Council of Europe, in particular through its Youth for Democracy programme, in peacebuilding and intercultural dialogue with young people and to support the approaches of the UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security and the Sustainable Development Goals.

 The Youth Peace Camp is organised by the Council of Europe Youth Department with the support of the Directorate of Political Affairs and External Relations and of the Cyprus Youth Board.