Published in “Beryte” (Students magazine of the Saint Joseph University; Beirut- Lebanon)
Open letter to the Lebanese authorities on the occasion of the 53rd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
It is sad to admit that Lebanon does not implement any youth policy on a national level. The search for identity is still a major concern for a Lebanese young person, especially within the rapid changes that our society is witnessing. The role of the Lebanese authorities is rather a confusing one. They are insisting on a unique-thought (cultural and political) policy, preventing the youth from a consistent search and confirmation for their identity.
The trend in Lebanon is to emphasise on a kneading (or blending = insihar in Arabic) policy, thus causing the melting of all the “loyalist” political tendencies into a unique product and simply rejecting the other tendencies. This policy is inevitably creating a basement for a new conflict within the Lebanese society, mainly because of the intolerance and the prejudices that are emerging within the Lebanese youth.
On the other hand, the serious socio-economical crisis is affecting a lot the youth in Lebanon. A young person can hardly become autonomous within this crisis. Moreover, the self-consciousness of the Lebanese youth has been restricted because of the « new priorities list” of the young Lebanese, who is spending most of his time trying to survive the crisis, having no time for other concerns. Youth autonomy and social responsibilities are as well negatively influenced by the general political context in Lebanon (refer to the Background information)
One of the pillars in any youth policy is education. Formal education is largely repressive (from the methodological point of view) and is much more efficient in private universities compared to the public one, where the local political conflicts and the acute economical conditions are restricting its development and autonomy. Non-formal education is not recognised in Lebanon as an education alternative. This prejudice is a major obstacle against the emergence of a national youth policy. In general, young Lebanese are motivated scholars for informal self-teaching educational methods, but within their sphere of possibilities.
Knowing all the above-mentioned points, one can easily note that youth action in Lebanon remains the product of a personal initiative. This situation cannot generate a national youth policy.
The youth organisations in Lebanon are facing the following problems:
- Lack of resources: Most NGOs depend on voluntary contributions to finance their activities. Therefore, the youth NGOs operate through a voluntary unpaid network, thus limiting their productivity and efficiency.
- Political situation: For obvious political reasons, there were many attempts by « loyalist » political parties to hijack the youth activities. This prevented the rare independent youth initiatives from developing. The political labelling and the persistent human rights violations are the major obstacles in this path.
- The absence of a government policy: Although a ministry for youth and sports was created last year, there is still not a clear youth policy in Lebanon. The ministry still reacts on a case-by-case basis. Since March 2001, a group of NGO, headed by Save the Children- Lebanon is trying to advocate for the elaboration of a national youth policy. The role of the Ministry of youth, although not negative, is mainly passive.
- The absence of a cross-sectoral interest in youth policy: No supportive measures are taken by any of the non-civil society sectors. Apart from the passive attitude of the government, the private sector in Lebanon is still not really keen to support youth initiatives. With some exceptions, we can barely find a real partnership between the private sector and the civil society on the youth level. This is due to many factors, one of them being the economical crisis, another one is the under-estimation of any youth action or even activity, considered either a « childish » activity with no social influence or multiplication power or on the contrary a “dangerous trend” that may lead to radical social changes thus threatening the traditional leaderships.