The Youth Peace Ambassadors Network (YPAN) is an informal network of young peacebuilders from across Europe who work with and in conflict affected communities.

The Youth Peace Ambassadors Network was developed as an outcome of the ‘Youth Peace Ambassadors’ project of the Council of Europe. The project aimed to promote and support the role of young people in peace-building activities and one of its objectives was to create a network of youth peace ambassadors. During the life of the project a large number of topics and areas relevant to Human Rights issues were covered, with a special focus on peacebuilding. This unique approach gave all the participants an opportunity to take the knowledge and skills and put them into practice. In November 2012, midway through the Youth Peace Ambassadors project, a number of the participants attended a Youth Peace Ambassadors networking conference and took the first steps to becoming YPAN.

The target group of the original Youth Peace Ambassadors project were 77 young people from conflict affected communities from the member states of the Council of Europe. Indirectly over 500 young participants have been involved in activities organised by the YPA Network and by the participants of the YPA project.

It was identified that young people needed more and equal opportunities and experience for playing their part in conflict transformation and in countering all forms of racism and discrimination. The needs addressed included the need for building on the competences of young people to be able to address conflict situations in communities which are experiencing or recovering from armed conflict, terrorism, frozen conflicts, racism and aggressive nationalism, hate speech and discrimination. In society in general there is a need for young people to act as leaders in standing up against discrimination and human rights violations. There was also a need for young people to be in a position to support the initiatives of other young people and their organisations with regard to conflict prevention, management and transformation, as well as post-conflict reconciliation by means of intercultural dialogue, including its religious dimension.

The aims of YPAN

To develop a culture of peace by empowering young people, promoting human rights, dignity, equality and respect of diversity through education, advocacy and other nonviolent actions.

Objectives:

• To support young people with knowledge, skills, time, resources and space to become agents of change, peacebuilders and advocate at local and international level
• To foster sustainable peace and dialogue focusing on conflict affected and divided communities
• To address Human Rights issues in communities, efficiently respond to emerging Human Rights violations and to contribute to high-quality human rights education
• To establish a sustainable and well-functioning platform for organizations and individuals to cooperate

YPAN brings together 52 young people from 26 countries of the Council of Europe member states. Members of the Network are involved in work with and for young people within different structures: organisations, institutions, and informal groups. In its peacebuilding activities, the Network has support from youth organisations all over Europe. Equipped with knowledge and skills in human rights protection, conflict transformation, peacebuilding and intercultural dialogue the YPAN members strive to make a social change where a different peace is possible.

YPAN is active from local to international levels. At the national level members are running different projects linked to human rights and peacebuilding aiming to raise awareness on human rights, its violations, instruments, and mechanisms of its protection. Various human rights issues have been addressed in the local initiatives, such as recovering from armed conflict, discrimination and social exclusion, human rights violations of Roma communities, nationalism and xenophobia, hate speech, intercultural dialogue, minorities’ rights, violence against women.

At the international level YPAN organises educational activities, these have included:

Trainings

• ‘Peace is…’ aspects of peace and non-violence
• ‘Live and dance together’ dialogue between Turkish and Armenian young people through traditional dances

Seminars

•  ‘Let’s make it home’ inclusion of IDPs/Refugees in Hosting Communities
•  ‘Peace building through a gender lens’ gender sensitive approach in the peace building activities

Study Sessions

•  ‘Be active, be open, be YPA’ peace activism
•  ‘Mind your language’ recognition and respect towards the minority/regional languages

Online Actions

• ‘Solidarity with Turkey’ peaceful protests - Gezi
• ‘Peace is…’ video campaign on the meaning of peace
• ‘Northern Ireland’ children involved in the conflict’
• ‘Peace Day’ who will you make peace with today

In September 2016 YPAN started to implement a 14-month-long project titled, ‘Young Peacebuilders - Multipliers’. The project is on democracy and human rights and aims to equip young people with competences to be actors and multipliers of building and sustaining strong democratic systems across Europe.

  Innovation and Impact

The Youth Peace Ambassadors project was a long-term project supported by the Council of Europe's Youth Department that offered multiple approaches to Human Rights Education and peacebuilding. As a project it had a starting point (2011) and an ending point (2013). Uniquely this project created such a sense of belonging among the participants that it formed an international community of young peacebuilders who became motivated to continue the concept beyond the Council of Europe.

As a group they created, setup and independently run YPAN. The process of the creation was facilitated and supported by the Council of Europe. Acting as multipliers of the values and principles of the original project YPAN is now extending to people who were not direct participants of the original project.

The Youth Peace Ambassadors project of the Council of Europe and later the Youth Peace Ambassadors Network had a great impact on the individuals who took part in the activities of the project and now YPAN. Over the past 5 years the project and YPAN have been changing the lives of young people. Some have decided to take more action to build peace, some re-organized their organizations to shift their priorities to peace, and some chose to fight for peace through their professional work. No individual who participated in the activities of the project, network building and organizing activities left without taking something new and valuable with them. Peace is built piece by piece, and in YPAN young people are those pieces. Many joint actions and events have been organized, making an impact on organizations and local communities, spreading the idea of peacebuilding across the continent and beyond. Continuous expansion and the multiplying effects of the values and beliefs are what keep the idea of YPAN running and increasing its positive impact on individuals and communities.