In 2021, after the Taliban takeover, Nila Ibrahimi and her household fled Afghanistan. Having been a vocal rights advocate for the reason that age of 13, when she led a viral marketing campaign that efficiently overturned a authorities ban stopping Afghan ladies over the age of 12 from singing in public, she knew that she risked being a goal of the brand new regime.
UN Youth Workplace
After spending time in hiding, she now lives in Canada, however she hasn’t left activism behind. From her new dwelling, she began HerStory, an organisation devoted to documenting the experiences of ladies each inside Afghanistan and throughout the diaspora.
“I do my finest to inform the tales of ladies who’ve been banned from going to highschool. I used to be capable of graduate however my mates are nonetheless caught in time within the ninth grade. It’s emotional work, however I feel that if it motivates only one particular person to do one thing, then I feel that I’ve carried out sufficient”.
Lively companions in peace
Ms. Ibrahimi was talking to UN Information at an occasion held on 15 December to mark the tenth anniversary of Safety Council Decision 2250, which formally recognises younger individuals as lively companions in sustaining and selling worldwide peace and safety.
Round half the individuals on the planet are below 30, which makes them the era with the best stake in our widespread future. Nonetheless, they’re usually excluded from the areas the place options to our most intractable points are formed.
Because the adoption of the decision, the UN has supported a number of initiatives implementing the suggestions it comprises. For instance, theDemocratic Republic of the Congo, The Gambia, and Honduras developed Youth, Peace & Safety (YPS) nationwide and native motion plans; the African Union held Africa’s first continent-wide dialogue on YPS, culminating within the Bujumbura Declaration; and 11 international locations, from Africa to the Center East, Asia and Europe, have to this point enacted YPS motion plans which can be aligned with Decision 2250.
Afghanistan, nonetheless dominated by the Taliban, just isn’t one among them. Nonetheless, Ms. Ibrahimi, who has usually felt that she is ploughing a lonely furrow, stays undaunted and devoted to persevering with the struggle for ladies’s rights.
“It actually struck me, within the convention, that I am in the identical room as some individuals who I’d by no means have had the chance to satisfy and study concerning the ways in which they’ve carried out methods to empower youth of their international locations,” she displays. “Simply being of their presence has been an enormous privilege and alternative to not simply speak about my very own story and lift the voices of Afghan girls but in addition study from others”.
Act now for peace
The 15 December occasions culminated in a Peace Circle, that includes Ms. Ibrahimi, a number of different younger leaders, and senior UN officers, diplomats and lecturers. Peace Circles grew out of a main UN initiative, as a part of the flagship Act Now marketing campaign. They’re casual dialogues on topics linked to peace, which may vary from topics as wide-ranging as training gender equality, local weather and know-how. At the very least half of the contributors must be below 30, with an emphasis on younger people who find themselves usually not on the desk and new to UN areas.
The Act Now for Peace marketing campaign runs till September 2026, and the discussions held on the Peace Circles will straight feed into plenty of UN initiatives, together with the UN Secretary-Normal’s Unbiased Examine on youth contributions to peace, and a International Youth Peace Manifesto.
Discover detailed data on the way to arrange a Peace Circle right here.
