The 2017 Nuclear Ban Treaty by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History, Military, Nuclear Warfare, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, International, International Security
ISBN: 9780429685941
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2020-05-21T04:00:00+00:00

Changes, challenges and future directions

Youth activism is constantly growing and changing, partly due to expanding and instantaneous role that technology plays. Young people are more aware of their rights, the necessity to act and are hopeful and open-minded about different strategies for change.46 Gem Romuld from ICAN Australia highlights how feminist anti-nuclear activism is changing to include broader understandings of gender identities, and a more inclusive awareness of how gender intersects with other oppressions of race, class, sexuality and religion.47 According to IPPNW Students, young people no longer want to be referred to as ‘just’ another voice, instead wanting an equal seat, voice and vote in matters.48 A2K Youth Network stresses that there is an ever-increasing need to maintain the attention and commitment of younger people, especially as millennials are keen on new things, novelty and speed.49 Thus, organizations need to continuously find new ways of tapping into the potential of young people and maximize their voices50 Social media appears to be one of the most indispensable ways of engaging activists, coordinating campaigns and partnering with organizations via Facebook, Twitter, websites, email lists, blogs and webinars.51

46A2K Youth Network; Amplify; PANYs.

47Romuld, 2017.

48IPPNW Students. This fits with the direction Resolution 2250 that calls for youth inclusiveness across and within all agendas.

49A2K Youth Network.

50Amplify. So that it becomes contagious for more young people to take a stand on the issues.

51For example, see Instagram tags #YouthAgainstNukes, #NukeFreeFuture. It is important to provide social media guidelines to ensure co-ordinated campaigns

As with any form of activism, challenges remain. For youth, these revolve around a lack of attention given to their perspectives,52 low engagement, relative impact of social media campaigns, avoiding repetition, balancing local and international aims, political backlash, level of expertise,53 funding, attendance issues,54 voluntary nature of activism,55 maintaining inclusiveness56 and risks of ‘age tokenism’ whereby a single young person may be asked to speak on behalf of all young people, rather than moving towards substantial representativeness.57 According to Amplify, the problem does not lie with disinterested youth, but rather that they are not aware of what they can do and are excluded from decision-making processes.58 Similarly, PANYs maintain that they have heard stronger calls for nuclear abolition from students in 2017 than in previous years.59

52A2K Youth Network; IPPNW Students; Amplify; PANYs see also A2K Youth Network, ‘Youth Plan Actions for Nuclear Abolition Day and the 2018 UN High Level Conference’, July 10, 2017. www.abolition2000.org/en/news/2017/07/10/youth-plan-actions-for-nuclear-abolition-day-and-the-2018-un-high-level-conference/ (accessed November 19, 2017).

53The discourse surrounding nuclear weapons of defence rhetoric and foreign policy jargon is also a barrier for some young people, who may feel as though the issues are beyond their expertise.

54A2K Youth Network; Amplify. Limits the number of people who can participate in events, despite high numbers of young people wanting to take part.

55This is an inherent constraint as young people are often time-poor because of study, work and juggling family commitments.

56Amplify.

57Ibid.

58Amplify.

59PANYs.

Moving forward, more needs to be done to increase the level and value of youth perspectives. For organizations and institutions this can include taking steps to increase

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