Protection through Participation: Young People Affected by Forced Migration and Political Crisis

RSC Working Paper No. 20 (Jesse Newman--Queen Elizabeth Fellow/Cumberland Lodge, March 2005) This paper examines how to develop more effective protection in practice by active participation of young people. The author insists that a strong basis for protection already exists among many young people themselves. Young people are aware of the importance of educational and livelihood opportunities and they require educational opportunities that provide vocational training and enable them to generate livelihoods. They also recognize education as a means to protection through the transmission of crucial knowledge such as reproductive health information. Therefore, the author claims that the protection strategies should be based upon identifying sources of strength and resilience in young people, and involving them in the active exploitation of the collective resources for survival which provide them safety amidst the chaos of war.