Young people report facing significant barriers to freedom of expression, such as cancel culture, online bullying, censorship, marginalization, and economic insecurity. The WEXFO Youth community has provided key recommendations to address these challenges and enhance freedom of expression for youth.
Young people make up a significant part of the world’s population. The United Nations (UN) estimates that there are 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 10 and 24 worldwide – the highest number ever recorded. The median age in the world is 31 years (2020), according to CIA, which means that half of the world’s population is below 31.
Still, young people are often not sufficiently heard and engaged in decision-making processes that significantly impact their lives and societies. Data suggests that only 2.6% of parliamentarians around the world are within this age group, while 76% of respondents under 30 think politicians do not listen to young people.
Youth at WEXFO 2024
At the World Expression Forum (WEXFO) 2024, two separate sessions aimed to explore the most significant challenges that young people face when it comes to freedom of expression, existing solutions, and actions that promote young people’s freedom of expression. These sessions also discussed what else the world must do to more actively engage youth. Additionally, the event featured several other programs focused on young people, including WEXFO Youth Voices, which brought together over 1,000 young participants aged 13-18, and the WEXFO Youth Network Conference, which provided a platform for organizations and young leaders to connect and share ideas. The WEXFO Utøya Young Experts and WEXFO More Young Voices programs also played crucial roles in empowering young voices and fostering a global dialogue on freedom of expression.
Young activists speak out
In the first session, Arizza Nocum, co-founder and President of the non-profit organization KRIS, led a multi-national panel of young activists consisting of Ewura Adams Karim (social entrepreneur from Ghana) Alicja Wisniewska (Polish National Youth Council board member), Khaled Harara (hip hop artist from Palestine), Shomy Hasan Chowdhury (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene activist from Bangladesh) and Selma Østerbø (WEXFO Youth member from Norway).
According to the panelists, the challenges that young people face when it comes to freedom of expression are both internal and external. Internal issues include not being able to express themselves freely due to the fear of being “cancelled,” cyberbullying, and hate speech – especially in online channels. Young people also lack access to information that they can easily understand and act on; for example, a panelist mentioned that even policies and laws regarding youth are hard to comprehend since they are not “laymanized” (simplified to be understood by ordinary people).
Meanwhile, external challenges include state censorship and oppressive laws against freedom of expression, which are more prevalent in countries with weak democracies. Cultural norms such as “ageism” were also mentioned, with young people – especially young women – deliberately marginalized. Panelists lamented the disempowering environment for youth: Without economic and labor policies that support youth and their well-being, they will not have the capacity to speak up.
Key recommendations
To address the challenges, the panelists provided the following key recommendations to strengthen freedom of expression for young people:
- Sustained efforts to include and involve youth: Youth must continue to be involved in forums, workshops, and events that are “safe spaces” where they have the opportunity to converse and be heard. However, young people have grown cautious of one-time events with no follow-through and want their thoughts to be actually translated into action.
- Better access to information: Youth must be equipped with factual, engaging, and comprehensible information to express themselves better. This is especially relevant for the policies and reforms that directly impact youth.
- Supportive policies: Governments, corporations, and organizations must create an empowering environment that supports youth and their freedom to express themselves. This means ensuring that young people have access to basic necessities such as quality education and a livable wage. Clear policies and guidelines (e.g., youth representation quota, anti-age discrimination laws) should ensure that youth have the agency to be heard, make decisions, and represent their age group in politics or decision-making bodies.
- Cultural values: When cultural values prevent youth from speaking up and being listened to, these must change. Such changes are difficult but can start by engaging with all members of the population and highlighting the importance of youth voices.
- Global collaboration: Global collaborations like WEXFO must continue to happen so that youth can learn about one another’s circumstances, provide support to one another, and get inspired to take action.
Strategies to promote free expression
The second WEXFO session, part of the WEXFO Youth Network Conference, was a collaborative workshop focused on the status of young people’s freedom of expression. The session featured presentations from young experts from various countries, sharing their work in this field. A primary focus was on strategies to promote youth freedom of expression in the future. The presentations and subsequent discussions highlighted the following action points:
- Collective action across generations: Youth must not work with youth alone. By listening better and putting empathy at the core of communication, different generations must work together to promote freedom of expression that benefits everyone. This means overcoming biases and stereotypes, as well as realizing that people have common goals and interests.
- Fill the gaps: Youth must continue to ask the question: “Who is not in the room?”. In terms of promoting freedom of expression on the global stage, those who do not speak English or major languages are often left at the sidelines. How do we engage them better? For those who do not have access to a computer or social media in a digital age, how do we listen to them?
- Multisectoral collaboration: People should go beyond silos in promoting freedom of expression. Academia, athletes, and artists must work with politicians, civil society, and young leaders to create actions that can effectively impact broader groups of people. WEXFO’s diverse participants and speakers show the promise of such collaboration.
- Educate and equip youth: Youth will only be able to express themselves well if they have access to quality education, factual information, and relevant skills. These skills and capacities include reading, critical thinking, public speaking, and debate. However, youth cannot be truly supported if the issue of money is ignored. If youth do not have access to jobs or a livable wage, then freedom of expression will suffer. If young leaders or activists do not get access to funding that supports freedom of expression, they will find it difficult to actually make change happen.
- Strengthen policies and democratic values to promote freedom of expression: Freedom of expression functions best in free, democratic societies. Youth – and other generations – will not be able to express themselves freely if they are oppressed by the state, violently silenced, or marginalized by policies. While it is important for people to fight for freedom of expression by exercising their rights as citizens and voters, there must also be recognition of geopolitical or profit-driven forces that systematically squash human rights and free speech. Therefore, it is necessary for events like WEXFO to come out with tangible “asks” from policymakers and governments that the WEXFO community can rally around.
This article is based on summaries from the sessions provided by Arizza Nocum, President of KRIS and WEXFO program committee member.