The ASEAN Youth Forum (AYF) commenced in 2009 as a movement for the young people in Southeast Asia to create a better regional community. From 2009 to 2013, the movement made statements and recommendations calling on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to be more inclusive and rights-based. In 2014, under the guidance of the Yangon Declaration (2014), the movement transitioned from a group making statements and recommendations to developing strategies for a youth-driven regional community.[1] In 2019, AYF was fully institutionalized as a legal association. In 2020, the AYF Secretariat was established in Jakarta. Since the movement began, AYF has been organizing annual forums hosted locally in the Southeast Asian countries to gather regional perspectives on youth rights issues.
Programs
AYF developed several programs that address a number of issues related to the youth in Southeast Asia.
The School of Advocacy for Youth on Human Rights in Southeast Asia (SAY-HR-SEA) was initiated from an AYF program in collaboration with the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and Plan International Asia and Pacific. This initiative aims to strengthen the engagement of AICHR with the stakeholders, partners, and young human rights defenders, raise the awareness of AICHR, and build capacity in engaging and working with AICHR. This program started in 2021.
In 2022, ten youth from Southeast Asian countries held an online forum from 18 May to 31 August to present their ideas, proposals, and recommendations on advancing human rights in the subregion. In 2023, the SAY-HR-SEA Program continued with three online sessions and nine on-site sessions, allowing participants to meet face-to-face. Twelve participants from Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam gathered in Bangkok from on 10-12 August 2024. Some of the topics covered were Human Rights 101, Human Rights Convention, Advocacy 101, Advocacy in Practice, and Do's and Don'ts in Advocacy Meeting.
AYF believes that the youth in the subregion have multiple life perspectives which can be expressed through creative processes and are worth further amplifying. This is the main focus of its YUWANA Program. YUWANA is derived from the Sanskrit word yauvana meaning youth. It stands for young, united, witty, accessible, and non-discriminative activism. Through this zine-making process, AYF aims to build solidarity among the youth in the subregion. This program started in 2020.
Under YUWANA program, young artists are invited to reflect and create artworks that channel their mind, feelings and inspirations into promoting human rights values in Southeast Asia.
This program has YUWANA Zine (a magazine containing youth artwork); YUWANA Exhibition (an on-site exhibition held to exhibit various artwork from the YUWANA Zine 7th edition), YUWANA Talk (Talkshow during YUWANA Exhibition where AYF invites experts in art and human rights to share knowledge and discuss artivism, Zine, and their perspective on the exhibition topic), YUWANA Podcast (audio recording of the young artists' written artwork such as poems), and YUWANA Minority Circle for Artivism/YMCA (a space of advocacy that has roots from artivism and seed solidarity among minority youths in the region).
Since 2020, AYF has collaborated with three hundred sixteen young artists across Southeast Asia and produced seven editions of Yuwana Zine. Each edition of Yuwana Zine has specific theme such as the following:
In the 7th edition (2022), young artists were invited to reflect upon the theme of "Grief, Loss, and Human Rights." A YUWANA Exhibition held in December 2022 was the first offline event under the program. The event took place in Jakarta on 9 - 10 December 2022 at Perpustakaan Nasional Republik Indonesia (Indonesia National Library) with a total of six hundred eleven visitors, and in Bangkok on 10 - 11 December 2022 held at the Shopping Mall Gateway Ekkamai, with a total of two hundred six visitors. The exhibition in Bangkok was held in partnership with Plan International Asia & Pacific and Thailand Youth Institute.
Examples of the artwork exhibited
1. Mini Fund for Youth
The Mini Fund for Youth is a program designed to support youth-led movements and activism that promote human rights, democracy, justice, peace and freedom across countries in Southeast Asia during the pandemic. The fund is intended for programs, initiatives and activities targeting young people between the ages 15-35 who have a vision of bringing positive change to their community in response to the issues of freedom of expression, the right to participate in political and public life, and the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.
2. Youth Networking
AYF has expanded its network to promote human rights and democracy by engaging with youth communities, youth leaders, ethnic minorities, Queer Communities (LGBTIQ+), girls and young women, secondary school students, Human Rights Defenders and civil society organization/non-governmental organization (CSO/NGO) workers, indigenous communities (indigenous rights holders), non-English speaking youth, Persons with Disability or Youth with Disability, religious minorities, university/college students and graduates, urban poor, young workers and professionals, youth in migration (exchange students, refugees, migrant workers, etc.), youth in rural area or conflicted area, and others representing those who are in the listed category of the program). As a result, AYF has become one of the leading organizations that has earned the trust of ASEAN in contributing to the ASEAN Workplan on Youth 2021-2025. Responses from all the participants and partners joining AYF activities are mainly positive and many of them express their satisfaction and hope to join them again next year.
3. Youth Right Ambassadors
AYF introduced a Youth Rights Ambassador scheme in 2022. This is part of AYF's efforts to further promote youth advocacy on human rights issues in line with the objectives of the organization and also for the organization to gain new knowledge in building strategies that can assist in the continuity and sustainability of its youth rights advocacy.
Nine young people of Southeast Asia were selected as Youth Rights Ambassadors in 2022 for three different circles and joined events where the rights of the youth were discussed among various stakeholders. Every circle has three Youth Ambassadors who serve for three months for three different issues: The Freedom of Expression; The Right to a Clean, Healthy & Sustainable Environment; The Right to Participate in Political and Public Life. The Youth Rights Ambassadors directly advocate human rights by delivering interventions and asking critical questions in subregional forums based on AYF's existing advocacy materials, voice out the concerns of youth within AYF's network, and act as AYF's focal persons.
Activities
In 2022, AYF held Youth Open Spaces online #18 on "Youth, Disability, and Digital Entrepreneurship."
It also held an online Youth Talk Show titled "Self-made, Youth, and Imagining Inclusive Opportunities for Youth with Disabilities."
AYF also implemented the following Mini-Fund activities:
Aside from Yuwana Exhibitions, YUWANA Talks and YUWANA Podcasts, AYF holds different activities each year including the following:
The SEAYouth Festival is an online festival for Young Southeast Asians to come together, empower each other, and voice out their concerns about the issues related to Southeast Asia. The festival is organized to observe the International Youth Day (August 12) and consists of a series of open spaces, forums, workshops, and other activities that would empower youth, hone their skills, and culminate in fostering solidarity for a sustainable rights-based, inclusive, people-centered, and youth-driven subregional community.
Insights
Providing safe space for fostering solidarity among young people, building their knowledge and capacity, and influencing the policymaking and decision-making process in the subregion is an important mission of AYF. It actively pursues this mission in collaboration with youth networks across the subregion and partners. It will persist in pursuing this approach to strive towards a sustainable, inclusive, people-centered, and youth-driven subregional community
For further information, please contact ASEAN Youth Forum (AYF): ASEAN Youth Forum Secretariat, Jalan Kalibata Utara 1 No. 32, Jakarta Selatan, Jakarta, Indonesia 12740; e-mail: secretariat@aseanyouthforum.org; https://aseanyouthforum.org/.
[1] See full text of The Yangon Declaration - ASEAN Youth Statement in this link: https://aseanyouthforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/AYF-Yangon-Declaration.pdf.