Globally, trends over the past few years have shown an increase in reports of threats and human rights violations against young people. Young changemakers face numerous, compounding, and gendered threats to their safety and security, including harassment and attacks, which can be physical, psychological, sociocultural, political, legal, digital, or financial in nature and take place both online and offline. These risks are compounded by the fact that most established protection mechanisms are designed for adult human right defenders or children, while youth often find themselves in an ambiguous transitional age range (15 – 29) that overlaps legal definitions of childhood and adulthood.
The Youth Excel Consortium took the initiative to develop guidelines for its team members and local partner organizations to fill these gaps out of a commitment to promoting youth leadership and knowledge, and in response to the elevated risks it brings due to the program’s technical scope, target participants (youth), multi-cultural complexity, and partner capacity.
Through this Policy, Youth Excel establishes a commitment to protection and safeguarding and establishes institutionalized, accessible, responsive, and gender- sensitive steps to protect the safety and rights of young people and vulnerable adults it engages.
This policy provides concrete guidance and resources to the Youth Excel Consortium to responsibly, effectively, and safely implement Youth Excel and its partners’ safeguarding policies and procedures. These procedures have been created to be localized in each geographic focus area to align with local law, procedures, and resources. On at least an annual basis, partners and participants should reflect on the efficacy of protection measures and adjust accordingly. Youth Excel partners and project teams are encouraged to adapt these guidelines for their own local needs according to their specific protection assessment and mitigation plans.
You must be logged in in order to leave a comment