Event: Drawing Connections: Youth Peacebuilding in Scotland and the World

Exploring the UN Global Agenda on Youth, Peace, and Security

Jointly hosted by:
The University of Edinburgh (Prof. Christine Bell)
The University of St. Andrews (Dr. Jaremey McMullin)
The University of Glasgow (Dr. Rebecca Sutton)

As the new Scottish Council on Global Affairs officially launches, the global Youth, Peace and Security agenda (under UN Security Council Resolution 2250) is also gaining momentum. Academics, applied researchers, and practitioners active in the youth peacebuilding space want to make sure that real youth with real knowledge of peace and justice issues play an active role in advancing the new Council’s agenda.

With an emphasis on engaging with Scottish and Scotland-based youth, this initial youth peacebuilding event will explore how youth perspectives can inform research and policymaking in Scotland and globally moving forward – including through more active partnership with SCGA peacebuilding work.  The aim of this first event is to forge surprising connections and networks, and to strengthen existing, mutual understanding about the excellent work that youth (and those who support youth activists) are already doing in this space.

This project led by Rebecca Sutton (Glasgow), Christine Bell (Edinburgh) and Jaremey McMullin (St Andrews) will create a collaborative network will bring together interested members of academia, government, civil society (including NGOs and religious groups), as well as youth activists who are engaged in peacebuilding work in Scotland or further afield.

It will explore the UN Global Agenda on Youth, Peace, and Security, and will eventually engage with UN staff who have played a role in shaping this agenda. Building on the success of youth activism at COP 26, there will also be an emphasis on youth participation in the network. 

The participatory approach of the event is designed to expose individuals and groups who are active in the youth peacebuilding, youth activism, and Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) space to each other’s work. The wider ambition of the event is to place young people in conflict squarely on the agenda of the emerging SCGA and central to Scottish business, and generate momentum within Scotland for new youth peacebuilding initiatives. 

Milestone: Roundtable on 28 April 2022; Working Paper and ‘Live Drawing’ by 5 August 2022.

The chief outcomes of this event will be:

• A one-day round-table event (26 participants) at the National Museum of Scotland
• A round-table report to be published and disseminated by the SCGA 
• A ‘Live Drawing’ reconstruction of the event to provide a visual representation of the narratives and key themes of the round-table to be published and disseminated by the SCGA