Giving Youth a Voice to Build a Fair Post-Covid World
A joint UNESCO-UNODC partnership working to promote the rule of law through education is launching a series of virtual regional dialogues to bring young people together with policymakers to hear what they want from education and justice systems in the post Covid-19 future.
The pandemic has not only severely disrupted schooling, but has also fractured important connections between young people and education institutions. The impact has been hardest on vulnerable and marginalized young people, especially girls, for whom school offers not only a space for learning but also protection and nutrition.
The dialogues will focus on Central America, South Asia, Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa and will seize the opportunity for change offered by the pandemic to build discussion among young people, policy-makers, educators, and representatives from education and justice sectors to engage them in building back better.
Each one will be grounded in UNESCO’s response to the pandemic which includes the Learning Never Stops and Futures of Education initiatives while reflecting regional contexts and needs.
The recommendations from the dialogues will feed into the 14th United Nations Crime Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice to be held in March 2021, among other events.
The UNESCO-UNODC Partnership on Global Citizenship on Education for the Rule of Law, aims to empower children and youth to understand and exercise their rights, think critically, make sound ethical judgments, and build just societies.
It forms part of UNESCO’s GCED and UNODC’s E4J work which, among others, has produced a policy guide and education materials for primary and secondary schools.
