Cross-Directorate Youth & Future Generations Diplomatic Advocacy Task Force
A standing cross-divisional task force of the Fostering Diplomatic Relations Directorate, ensuring that the rights and interests of youth and future generations are represented across all dimensions of the Directorate's diplomatic work — from climate negotiations to arms control to economic policy — recognizing that the decisions made today will shape the world that young people and their children will inherit.
Mission & Cross-Directorate Mandate
Ensuring That Diplomacy Serves Those Who Will Live Longest With Its Consequences
The decisions made in diplomatic negotiations today — on climate change, on nuclear weapons, on AI governance, on debt, on biodiversity — will shape the world that young people and future generations will inherit. Yet young people are systematically underrepresented in diplomatic processes, and future generations have no voice at all. The climate movement has demonstrated that young people can mobilize political pressure on long-term issues, but translating that pressure into institutional change requires sustained engagement across every dimension of diplomacy. The UN Secretary-General's Envoy for Youth, the UNFCCC Youth Constituency, and the growing movement for future generations commissioners represent early attempts to institutionalize intergenerational equity in international governance, but they remain marginal to the core diplomatic processes where decisions are made.
This task force coordinates the Directorate's youth and future generations advocacy — ensuring that intergenerational equity is a consistent priority across all diplomatic domains.
Governing Frameworks
Legal & Operational Basis
- CRCUN Convention on the Rights of the Child — binding international framework for children's rights including participation rights and the best interests of the child standard
- UN Youth StrategyUN Youth 2030 Strategy — international framework for youth engagement in UN processes and the meaningful participation of young people in decisions that affect their futures
- Future GenerationsUN Declaration on Future Generations — emerging international framework for protecting the interests of future generations in present-day decision-making
- SDG FrameworkUN Sustainable Development Goals — international framework for sustainable development that explicitly addresses intergenerational equity and the needs of future generations
Core Operational Functions
Six Cross-Directorate Capabilities
01
Intergenerational Equity Mainstreaming
Coordinate intergenerational equity mainstreaming across the Directorate — ensuring that the long-term consequences of diplomatic decisions for young people and future generations are systematically assessed and that short-term political considerations do not consistently override long-term intergenerational obligations.
02
Youth Participation Frameworks
Coordinate youth participation frameworks — developing the institutional mechanisms, capacity building programs, and meaningful consultation processes that give young people genuine influence over the diplomatic decisions that will shape their futures.
03
Future Generations Advocacy
Coordinate future generations advocacy — supporting the development of international legal frameworks, ombudsperson institutions, and parliamentary committees for future generations that give voice to those who cannot yet speak for themselves in diplomatic processes.
04
Climate Intergenerational Justice
Coordinate climate intergenerational justice advocacy — ensuring that the Directorate's climate engagement addresses the disproportionate burden that climate change places on young people and future generations and that climate commitments are evaluated against their long-term intergenerational implications.
05
Youth Peace and Security
Coordinate youth peace and security engagement — implementing UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security and ensuring that young people are recognized as agents of peace rather than merely as victims of conflict or potential security threats.
06
Digital Future Governance
Coordinate digital future governance advocacy — ensuring that the governance frameworks for AI, the internet, and digital technologies are designed with the interests of young people and future generations at their center, and that young people have meaningful input into the governance of the technologies that will define their lives.