IGF 2018 DC Youth: Developing Youth Participation at the IGF

Session(active tab)
Report

Session

Room

Salle XII

Youth Coalition on Internet Governance

Other - 90 Min
Format description: Roundtable and Breakout session mix with a focus on dialogue with the audience

Theme

Human Rights, Gender & Youth

Subtheme(s)

YOUTH INCLUSION

Description

The session will open with a roundtable on how young people have risen to the occasion in the past year to contribute to IG events, and which YCIG 2018 priorities were met to accommodate this. Short presentations would include SEEDIG, EuroDIG Youth Messages, Youth Expert List, IGF Buddy System, EU Code Week, among others. This is followed with a breakout session on "Call for Contributions: Mapping Youth Participation Inclusion" tentatively in cooperation with the Council of Europe. This is followed with the handover to the new elected YCIG Steering Committee who will open their tenure with a discussion with the audience on "How can the YCIG community rise to the occasion to promote youth participation, advocate for the rights and opportunities for young people in IG and create an environment in which young people can easier engage in the IGF processes?"

Organizers

Nadia Tjahja, Sunium/Youth Coalition on Internet Governance (Steering Committee Member representing WEOG & EEG)

Speakers

Nadia Tjahja, Sunium (Moderator) Israel Rosas, Mexican Government (Moderator) James Propa, Civil Society (Moderator) Su Sonia Herring, Civil Society (Key Participant) Council of Europe (Key Participant) The incoming elected YCIG Steering Committee for 2019 (TBA)

Session Time

Report

Session Report (* deadline 9 January) - click on the ? symbol for instructions

- Session Type (Workshop, Open Forum, etc.):

- Title: DC on Youth

- Date & Time: 12 November, 12:30-13:30

- Organizer(s): Nadia Tjahja

- Chair/Moderator: Nadia Tjahja

- Rapporteur/Notetaker: Su Sonia Herring

- List of speakers and their institutional affiliations (Indicate male/female/ transgender male/ transgender female/gender variant/prefer not to answer):

Nadia Tjahja, YCIG/Sunium

Su Sonia Herring, SEEDIG

Charalampos Kyritsis, YOUthDIG

Auke Pals, EuroDIG

Marius Jitea, Council of Europe

- Theme (as listed here): Human Rights, Gender & Youth

- Subtheme (as listed here): Youth Inclusion

- Please state no more than three (3) key messages of the discussion. [150 words or less]

We must increase recruitment for IGF attendance activities in schools and universities and finding practices to facilitate these through setting up an education network that can manage this.
We must invest in increasing female participation.
We must ensure that other regions beyond Europe, in particular disadvantaged and underrepresented regions, continue and become increasingly more active and represented in Internet Governance discussions.

- Please elaborate on the discussion held, specifically on areas of agreement and divergence. [150 words] Examples: There was broad support for the view that…; Many [or some] indicated that…; Some supported XX, while others noted YY…; No agreement…

There was broad support for the view that youth recruitment within schools and universities should be coordinated for future IGFs. Some indicated that the word “internet governance” may cause confusion for young people and a better entry point could be “freedom of speech”, “cyberbullying”, “data protection”, etc.

There was broad support for bringing together organiser of YouthIGF’s to share common practices and outcomes.

There is a concern that the YCIG has been very Eurocentric. Others noted that female participation needs to be increased.

There was general disappointment on the manner in which session organisers engaged with the call for youth participation. Despite reassurances that youth were included as speakers, sessions did not include youth speakers.

- Please describe any policy recommendations or suggestions regarding the way forward/potential next steps. [100 words]

The community indicated that in terms of Youth IGF’s they would be interested in setting up a session for IGF 2019 in which Youth IGF organisers could come together to discuss and share best practices but also results from their sessions and see where they can find synergies.
The community encouraged to further consider recruitment of young people in schools and universities through the creation of an education network.
The community would like to emphasise the role of women in tech and creating opportunities for the girl person

- What ideas surfaced in the discussion with respect to how the IGF ecosystem might make progress on this issue? [75 words]

YCIG offered to support and help YouthIGF organisers with a workshop proposal for IGF 2019 to collect all organisers of YouthIGF’s to come together to further discuss good practices and outcomes of their events.
YCIG organised a French language #JoinUs campaign which reached out to schools and universities for IGF 2018 and indicated that the campaign can only be as successful as the engagement of the community. We can consider extending it for 2019 but only with the support of the community.
Only concerns raised, but no concrete resolutions

- Please estimate the total number of participants.

59 people

- Please estimate the total number of women and gender-variant individuals present.

24 women

- To what extent did the session discuss gender issues, and if to any extent, what was the discussion? [100 words]

From the 2018 overview, the YCIG board spoke about their work encouraging girls and women participating in EU Code Week. Additionally the WG on Youth Participation in Internet Governance addressed supporting women on panels.

There were multiple interventions by the audience who raised the issue of female participation in local events and IGF sessions and the need to further invest and encourage in girls and women.