AI Morocco - Annual Youth Campus 2013

        

         Youth stand for strength, energy and power. Young people are essential to the continuance and advancement of beliefs and ideas, as their mental vigour enables them to achieve great objectives and accomplish tasks efficiently. First and foremost young people however possess the paramount ability to achieve one thing: Change. The revolutions of the past two years on the Arab world have shown us that young people can cause incredible shifts and transformations if they decide to unify their power not to support what is already present and follow the given tracks, but rather to counteract and stand up against what they are demanded to accept but do not agree with. 

Amnesty International Morocco’s Annual Youth Campus 2013 from the 1st to 7th of September was such an opportunity for the youth to unite and exponentiate their vigour and willpower: forty young members of Amnesty International from across the MENA-region and Europe once again came together to share and exchange their ideas and beliefs, all emanating from a deep passion for human rights and the faith in a world free of injustice.

As for the past fourteen year, this year's camp provided an opportunity for these young activists to not only meet their counterparts from various different countries and backgrounds and learn from their experiences to develop the work in their own sections, but also to benefit from the presentations and workshops held by experienced activists and organizers to generate the highest effectiveness of their campaigns and actions for human rights. During various activities they could work on essential elements to their work as human rights activists, such as organizational skills, creativity and strategy building. In so doing, they were for example required to design their own action and plan its effectuation, or be a part of real-life actions, such as one against the sexual harrassement of women in Egypt or another in support of Bahraini activist Nabeel Rajab. From the first day onwards, the participants showed their devotion to the cause through their amazing innovative abilities and their willingness to think in different, alternative ways to attract the most attention possible. So even despite the sometimes short preparation phases, the productions were captivating and stimulating for the audience and triggered interesting discussions. The young people spared no effort to make their messages heard through various ways, such as acting, music or film.

As much as every participant benefited individually from this week and was able to develop their personal skill and take away a lot of new information to use in the future, the campus was also an overall inspiration as generated a general atmosphere of hope and optimism. It was yet another possibility to see that the world, and especially the MENA-region in itself, is full of young, motivated, and determined people, who are prepared to defend their own and others' rights in a peaceful and respectful way, people who are passionate about their beliefs and work hard to stand up for them and make a difference.

During this campus, the young activists of Amnesty International had the chance to demonstrate and work on what youth can provide and what the fight for human rights needs: creative, devoted minds, ready to advocate their rights and ultimately bring about the change needed to achieve justice and equality for everybody.

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Victoria Helena Hugelshofer

Amnesty International Morocco

Oxford University