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MENAACTION, established by a group of young Middle Eastern youth, is a nonprofit organization designed to advocate for the rights of Middle Eastern youth and the Middle East in general. MENAACTION is for youth by youth, focusing on issues of policy, advocacy, democracy and human rights. MENAACTION is rooted in empowering voices in and from the Middle East and North Africa to lead efforts to incorporate youth in the region into policy and decision making, while expanding opportunities for youth involvement across society. Through a focus on youth and a combination of policy, advocacy, democracy, and human rights programs, MENAACTION provides a unique and distinct approach to addressing issues in the region. Our platform empowers not only young experts on the region, but also young experts from the region, providing an expertise that is lacking among existing approaches. Our core group is fluent in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Amazigh, French, and English. This will enable us to realize one of our guiding principles: MENAACTION is for all.
MENAACTION believes in the meaningful engagement of youth as stakeholders and active agents. We utilize our network of peers around the world to be our network of advocates, experts, and activists. They are provided with the space and opportunity to contribute our programs and activities through our online and offline presence. We compile their contributions and utilize them under our programs of policy, advocacy, democracy, and human rights. Such contributions will also inform our campaigns, and we will ultimately produce white papers and reports to be delivered to the relevant stakeholders, including decision makers.
MENAACTION combines academia with practical experience in research, analysis, advocacy, human rights, and media. Following the United Nations General Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace, and Security, there has been a growing interest in youth, albeit mostly from a security perspective. At MENAACTION, we go beyond that to incorporate human rights, freedoms, democracy, and political and structural challenges. This is particularly because youth in the MENA region remain overlooked and disengaged. Our team is comprised of individuals born and raised in the Middle East, and thus, have lived through these dynamics, and understand how to deal with them.