This new study invites us to challenge #youthwashing wherever it hides: in business, politics, or human rights work.
Read it here 👇
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
#YouthPower #ChildRights #academicbsky
[image sources: Wikimedia Commons / Ideogram / ChatGPT]
15/15
A young person who disagrees – can easily be dismissed as "immature."
So, instead of helping young people, "the right to be heard" can be used against them.
14/15
The legal wording of this right is vague. And that's exactly why youthwashers love it.
It allows them to listen only to the young people they agree with.
13/15
Even "the child's right to be heard" (a well-known legal principle) is part of the problem.
It sounds empowering, but it actually helps adults get away with #youthwashing.
12/15
In both examples, youth weren't simply excluded. They were used.
Their voices were carefully selected or framed to serve adult agendas – and all under the banner of "child rights."
11/15
NGOs quoted their words in reports – but then ignored their real message.
10/15
But the young Palestinians said the opposite.
Before the separation, Palestinian adults had helped, protected, and cared for them.
Now, these youths were more vulnerable to abuse by the Israeli authorities.
9/15
Example 2 - "child political prisoners":
For many years, human rights groups criticized Israel for imprisoning Palestinian children with adults.
Eventually, Israel separated them. This seemed like a victory for "child rights."
8/15
At global events, the chosen youth are often asked to sing, dance, or repeat convenient messages.
Their presence makes adults look progressive – while ignoring the working youth who disagree.
That's not real inclusion – that's #youthwashing.
7/15
These youth groups demand a say in the decisions and laws that affect them.
But international agencies exclude them from major policy events.
Only a few young people who agree with the official agenda are invited to speak.
6/15
In Africa, Asia, and Latin America, young workers have formed their own movements.
They say: Work can bring skills, dignity, and survival – if it's well-regulated.
5/15
Example 1 - "Child labor" abolitionists:
Organizations like the ILO and UNICEF say that "child labor" must stop.
But many young workers disagree. They want safer work, not bans that make them poorer.
Without an income, many of them also can't afford to go to school.
4/15
And #youthwashing often happens in the name of child rights.
The article focuses on two main examples:
1️⃣ "Child labor" abolition campaigns.
2️⃣ Human rights reports on Palestinian "child political prisoners."
3/15
Like greenwashing or pinkwashing, #Youthwashing is about claiming to support a certain group or cause – while actually using them for your own benefit.
2/15
Ever heard of #Youthwashing?
It's when governments, corporations, NGOs, or researchers use young people's voices, images, or causes to look good – while ignoring, or even undermining, their real concerns.
Here's what the first academic study on #youthwashing reveals 🧵
1/15
The voting age will be lowered to 16 across the UK.
The new rules will also extend voter ID to include bank and veterans' cards - helping more people exercise their democratic right.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
The full article examines these inter-group connections. You can read it here:
scienceopen.com/hosted-docum...
18/18
"Colligation" = grouping several minorities into one legal or political category.
"Conflation" = when someone is harmed after being mistaken for a member of another group.
17/18
"Penal borrowing" = using repressive measures that were created for one group against another.
"Justificatory analogy" = drawing comparisons between groups to justify discrimination and state violence.
16/18
The article uses four concepts to explain these inter-group connections:
• "Penal borrowing"
• "Justificatory analogy"
• "Colligation"
• "Conflation"
15/18
These kinds of connections are not unique to Israel/Palestine.
For example, British colonizers often exported laws and policing methods from one colony to another. They also compared different colonies - to justify British control.
14/18
Israel also passed laws that group Palestinians, African asylum seekers, and migrant workers together.
For example, one law limits the rights of all of these groups to sue their Israeli employers.
13/18
This borrowing goes both ways:
Saharonim prison was built for African asylum seekers but later used to hold Palestinians who entered Israel without permits.
12/18
Detention without trial was first used on Palestinians.
Later, Israel extended it to African asylum seekers, sometimes even in the same prison facilities.
11/18
Israel has also applied laws and policies that were first used against Palestinians – to other groups.
For example, the "Prevention of Infiltration" Law first targeted #Palestinian refugees, then was used to criminalize asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan.
10/18
An Israeli minister warned of a second "War of Independence" if African asylum seekers were not deported – describing them as an existential threat similar to Palestinians.
9/18
Israeli officials have called African asylum seekers a "cancer" and a demographic threat.
These same words have been used in anti-Palestinian rhetoric.
8/18
Israeli soldiers have also referred to themselves as American "Indians," using stereotypes of Native Americans as fierce warriors.
One soldier was photographed with a shirt saying: "When the Indian hits, every Arab mother shall cry."
7/18
For example, an Israeli diplomat compared "our right to live in our homeland" to the right of the Native American Sioux nation in the US.
By the way, he himself migrated to Israel only at the age of 15.
6/18
But Israel has also compared Jews to Indigenous peoples abroad, such as Native Americans.
The argument, in this case, is that Jews are the land's only Indigenous people.
5/18