References to Youth in Peace Agreements, 1990-2022. Introducing a new dataset

The aim of this report is to introduce our novel Dataset of References to Youth in Peace Agreements, 1990-2022 (YPAD)6. YPAD contains 208 peace agreements that refer to youth, young people, or similar, concluded between the years of 1990-2022 to bring an end to conflicts of inter-state, intra-state, or local nature. The dataset codes references to youth in peace agreements according to eight main themes and 53 sub-themes, in addition to including information on the respective agreement, conflict, and peace process, among others. https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/304816/1/304816.pdf

Peace agreements provide valuable insights into the relationship between youth and armed conflict. On one hand, where peace agreements reference youth, these offer a glimpse into how negotiating parties perceive the role of youth in driving, perpetrating, and/or resolving conflict.

On the other hand, the absence of any reference to youth in a peace agreement may indicate their marginalisation and neglect in peace negotiations. In addition, when youth are directly or indirectly involved in peace negotiations, references to youth in the resultant peace agreements can demonstrate what difference youth inclusion in peace negotiations have, or have not, made.

Part I of this Research Report introduces the definitions and methodology that underpin YPAD, including the main themes and sub-themes according to which references to youth are categorised and coded in the dataset. The next two sections offer an analysis of the data from YPAD. Part II investigates the peace agreements that make reference to youth, with a view to exploring the number, type, stage, and location of these agreements. Part III shifts the focus from the characteristics of agreements to their content, providing a thematic analysis of the references to youth in peace agreements. Across the Report, the analyses are accompanied by sample agreement provisions and agreements in spotlight which provide examples of references to youth from selected agreements. The Conclusion includes a summary of the main findings of our analysis, some reflections on the limitations of the data, and suggestions for further research.