2022 Commonwealth Youth Manifesto released

The 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, will provide a unique opportunity for the Commonwealth to explore its ability to develop and realise the ongoing potential for the role of sport as a vehicle of social change to improve the lives of young Commonwealth citizens. This is increasingly important as we recover from COVID-19 and address global movements to address social inequalities and injustices, including Black Lives Matter and #MeToo.

Over the past 25 years, the Youth Charter has contributed to policies, strategies and advocacy of the Commonwealth Secretariat, which has inspired the Sport for Development and Peace movement. This began with the Youth Charter’s presentation at the ‘Building a Nation Through Sport’ conference at the 1997 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Edinburgh. This year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham will mark 25 years of the Commonwealth Sport for Development and Peace movement since the Edinburgh 1997 CHOGM. 

Rwanda will be hosting the 2022 Commonwealth Youth Forum, as part of the 2022 CHOGM, with the theme ‘Taking Charge of our Future’. The Youth Charter will contribute to the Rwanda 2022 Commonwealth Youth Forum, Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, Commonwealth Games Federation and Commonwealth Sport Foundation through the YC 2022 Commonwealth Youth Manifesto.

The Birmingham 2022 Youth Programme, #BringThePower, has been launched with a pledge to engage at least 1 million children and young people aged 5-25 across Birmingham and the West Midlands in Birmingham 2022.

The Youth Charter’s national call to action to engage, equip and empower 1 million young people can support this pledge and can be expanded globally as part of the Youth Charter’s Commonwealth call to action, which aims to engage, equip and empower 5 million young people through 50 community campuses with 50,000 social coaches.

The Youth Charter’s community campus portal provide’s a digital platform to map, track and measure the outputs and outcomes of Birmingham 2022.