A2: Towards a more inclusive, diverse and empowered JEF

● Recognising that Europe has become a more diverse society, yet decision-making
in civil society organisations, political parties, and NGOs continues to reflect
structural inequalities that systematically underrepresent racialised people,
people with disabilities, LGBTIQ+ people, women, and those from lower
socioeconomic or migrant backgrounds;

● Acknowledging that societal power structures affect people’s possibilities to
participate and be themselves in society, e.g., due to their age, gender, gender
expression, religious conviction, or other belief, ethnic or cultural
background, migration status, nationality, refugee or minority status,
educational background, socio-economic background, ability or any other personal
attribute;

● Recognising that individuals may face overlapping forms of discrimination and
exclusion due to the intersection of identities such as gender, ethnicity,
disability, socio-economic background, sexual orientation or migration status;

● Acknowledging that currently at this stage, JEFers are not fully
representative of all Europeans and people living on the continent, including
people with different abilities, educational and socio-economic backgrounds, and
we still lack accessible representation of racialised people, people with a
migration or refugee background, from different minorities, whether in
membership, in elected positions or the Secretariat;

● Being aware that JEF Europe and its national sections face, like many other
non-governmental organisations and youth political organisations, the challenges
of the gender gap, in particular online, and therefore strives to empower women
and gender minorities to take higher positions in the different levels of JEF;

● Recalling the progress on improved inclusion through the introduction and
subsequent development of the JEF Code of Conduct as well as the development of
processes to tackle and prevent harassment, bullying or other forms of indecent
behaviour;

● The implementation of Gender Watch has shown variation in participation of
genders in Federal Committee meetings, and the increased representation of women
and non-binary people in elected positions has impacted the results;

● Keeping in mind the labour of the Task Force Empowerment and Diversity, which
aims to foster equality and inclusion within the network as well as increase the
participation of young people with fewer opportunities and different backgrounds
in JEF;

● Recalling initiatives such as the JEF Solidarity Fund aimed at lowering the
threshold of participation of young people with lesser means and welcoming the
creation of the guidelines for application of the Solidarity Fund, as well as
increasing the maximum amount of the travel cost reimbursement;

● Recognising the overall increased societal understanding and recognition of
equal representation of individuals with different backgrounds and identities,
as well as the need for continuous action for ensuring such representation;

● Noting the actions taken to improve the safety, accessibility and inclusivity
in the network, including guidelines for minors and protection of activists as
well as the accessible language guide;

● Recognising barriers for participation in JEF activities, such as the high
cost of travel to international events and activities;

● Being aware of the increased demands and pressure young people face in their
everyday lives, including their activism;

● Convinced that continued and further action to improve inclusion is needed.

Therefore, JEF Europe:

1. Demands that JEF Europe’s elected representatives, European secretariat and
JEF sections create an environment within JEF where members feel comfortable to
address questions of empowerment, diversity and inclusion, where people of all
backgrounds and other personal differences feel that their rights are respected.

2. Encourages diversity in its membership, which can only be attained through
the active recruitment of JEF members through a multitude of different
environments and institutions, rather than the often standard recruitment
through universities. This membership diversity could be sought from different
educational institutions and secondary level schools, other youth organisations
and minority communities. We also aim to recruit those who are not currently
studying or people already in the workforce. JEF sections should reach out
proactively to the aforementioned institutions for their support. By doing so,
JEF would further gain legitimacy, by ensuring better and wider representation
of the European youth and better reflect their ideas and opinions.

3. Commits to applying an intersectional approach to all inclusion and diversity
work, recognising that members may face compounding and mutually reinforcing
forms of marginalisation due to overlapping identities, including but not
limited to disability, gender, race, ethnicity, migration status, sexual
orientation, and socioeconomic background, and ensuring that JEF's inclusion
measures actively reach those facing multiple forms of exclusion simultaneously.

4. Recommends sections to introduce measures to increase representation of women
and gender minorities, in particular in leadership positions through quota
systems and complementary tools, and calls on sections that have not yet done so
to adapt their quota systems to explicitly include non-binary people, inviting
the Task Force on Empowerment and Diversity to provide model language and
support to sections undertaking this work in the coming term.

5. Calls upon its Presidium and Secretariat to continue to monitor participation
during statutory meetings through tools such as a Gender Watch, while ensuring
that these tools are inclusive of all gender identities and do not reinforce
binary understandings of gender. In cooperation with Permanent Contact Persons,
this process should also aim to actively encourage and empower participants,
particularly those who may feel less confident or underrepresented, to
contribute to discussions and express their views, thereby fostering a more
inclusive and balanced participation environment.

6. Requests the Presidium and Secretariat to extend the scope of diversity
oversight beyond the aforementioned Gender Watch. This should be achieved by
implementing statistical mechanisms to evaluate the diversity of attendees at
statutory events and releasing such data at the beginning of each event.

7. Commits to ensuring inclusion and safe participation at all JEF activities as
well as to promoting intergenerational dialogue within JEF and UEF.

8. Encourages sections of JEF to adopt and implement their own Codes of Conduct,
based on the model set by JEF Europe’s own Code of Conduct.

9. Demands JEF Europe and its sections to work on the development of a common
framework for Codes of Conduct, completely applying at all levels of the
network, with joint minimum standards for the protection of people involved in
JEF events, and a mechanism to protect Code of Conduct contact persons in the
exercise of their duties.

10. Pledges to ensure respect and safe participation for people belonging to
sexual or gender minorities and ensuring that they can freely be themselves,
e.g. through providing training on inclusion of people belonging to gender,
sexual, racial, national and other minorities.

11. Requires members of the network to show respect for the various gender
identities and expressions by encouraging presenting one’s preferred pronouns
when meeting new people.

12. Affirms that accessibility is a right, not an aspiration, in line with the
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and commits to
treating it as a default standard by requiring that JEF events, both in-person
and online, be organised with accessibility at their core, including physical
accessibility for people with reduced mobility, sign language interpretation or
other communication support, captioning and screen-reader-compatible materials
for online events, and measures addressing cognitive, psychosocial, and
invisible disabilities, not only visible or physical ones.

13. Commits to communicating about accessibility at JEF events in a manner that
is clear and reaches all possible participants.

14. Commits to the principle that people from underrepresented groups are
meaningfully involved in the design, review, and evaluation of JEF's inclusion
and diversity measures, not only as beneficiaries of outreach, and calls on the
Task Force on Empowerment and Diversity to ensure that its working methods and
membership actively reflect this principle, including by creating dedicated
pathways for members with lived experience of marginalisation to contribute to
policy development.

15. Supports wide participation from all over Europe, including by making the
Solidarity Fund more accessible and offering greater possibilities for online
participation, by ensuring hybrid participation options for statutory meetings
and major events where possible.

16. Commits to collecting data on the application of the Solidarity Fund and
continuously developing it based on the data.

17. Encourages our members to show and express their views, traditions, culture,
religion and beliefs and commits to creating conditions where participants in
activities feel safe to do so and respect others’ right to do the same.

18. Supports our members’ growth as federalists and active citizens and gives
room to all political opinions and affiliations as long as those do not violate
anyone else’s enjoyment of their rights and JEF Europe values.

19. Commits to the use of simple and easily understandable language and
explanation of difficult terms and abbreviations when using them to guarantee
everyone’s easy participation in JEF activities and encourages other
participants to do so as well.

20. Commits to use inclusive language in its internal and external communication
and take concrete action to communicate its methods on inclusion and building
safer spaces.

21. Commits to actively addressing racial and ethnic discrimination within JEF,
recognising that racialised members, including minorities and people with a
migration or refugee background, face specific and compounding barriers to
participation and leadership, and calls on sections to develop targeted measures
to improve the representation and inclusion of these groups, drawing on guidance
from the Task Force on Empowerment and Diversity.

22. Commits to empower capable and knowledgeable members regardless of their
gender, background or geographical location who, for whatever reason, might not
feel confident enough to run for positions on a local, regional, national and
European level, irrespective of whether they have or are currently holding an
elected position.

23. Demands that JEF sections ensure the full participation of people under the
age of 18, both at events and internal structures, in a safe way and within what
national legislation allows.

24. Urges JEF Europe Executive Board and the boards of national sections to
allocate members of their respective boards, whose task would be to encourage
and support individuals with diverse backgrounds in their participation and to
run for higher leadership positions within the organisation.

25. Commits to advertising the elections widely in the network, ensuring that
they are organised in a democratic way and in line with federalist values and
that the candidates feel empowered and respected.

26. Recommends JEF sections to develop training programmes aiming at addressing
empowerment and diversity of our membership, to complement those offered to
sections jointly by Task Force Empowerment and Diversity and Task Force Capacity
Building.

27. Commits to providing opportunities to its Executive Board, Federal Committee
and Secretariat to learn about power structures which affect participation in
JEF Europe activities from experts and to raise awareness within the network to
work for removing these barriers for participation.

28. Encourages JEF sections to implement practical tools to measure the
improvements and share the results and best practices with JEF Europe during
statutory and other meetings and i n the internal area for common resources.

29. Commits to developing and promoting a culture of wellbeing among volunteers
and staff, paying particular attention to mental health and right to disconnect,
and the disproportionate emotional and organisational labour often borne by
members from marginalised groups, and invites the Executive Board to take the
lead in developing structures for this in collaboration with the relevant task
forces, ensuring that wellbeing measures are designed with the specific needs of
underrepresented members in mind.