Mainstreaming youth views on preventing and resolving conflict and building lasting peace is a worldwide experience adopted by many countries in recent years. In this sense, UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) is the first international policy framework that recognized the positive contribution of youth in efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.1 UNSCR 2250 provided a ground for youth-inclusive peace practices and outlined fundamental approaches within its five pillars: participation, protection, prevention, partnerships, and disengagement and reintegration. As the YPS agenda stands for the meaningful and equal participation of youth in building and maintaining peace and conflict resolution, to further develop the roadmap of the agenda, two more thematic resolutions (2419 & 2535) were adopted by UNSC in 2018 and 2020, respectively.

While all three resolutions promote the role of youth involvement at all stages of peacebuilding and post-conflict programming, Resolution 2250 is a landmark in terms of the formulation of the consolidated youth, peace, and security agenda. It was prepared with the help of youth actors and stakeholders by assessing the needs of youth from different conflict-affected regions and addresses the global community. However, a need for conceptualization and localization of this document arises, whereby a more detailed framework could be provided. As the five pillars of Resolution 2250 are represented at different levels in every country, UN member countries took action to prepare national action plans and thematic agendas accordingly. In the case of Azerbaijan, a possible nationwide implementation of the Youth, Peace, and Security agenda pre-requires understanding the local context through the lens of youth, as well as defining the framework for calling on relevant institutions to action.

This policy paper arises from this need and is designed to address the YPSrelated issues in Azerbaijan. The paper analyses the country-level context, while providing a youth- and gender-sensitive approach to how young people perceive participation in decision-making processes and peace practices; how youth is affected by conflict and violence; how it contributes to conflict prevention; the level of cooperation between youth-led initiatives and government institutions as well as local organizations. Additionally, normative and policy frameworks are carefully assessed throughout the study, where shared visions, goals, and principles are reflected. Policy frameworks are important when implementing national and subnational-level programs, especially to engage relevant stakeholders in policymaking. To reflect on the tendencies shaping the normative and policy frameworks in Azerbaijan, alongside the perspective of youth, ideas and recommendations of decisionmakers and policymakers are taken into account. Furthermore, this paper explores the relevance of YPS agenda objectives while integrating them into different policy domains at domestic and foreign levels in Azerbaijan. Alongside integration into existing policy domains of the YPS agenda, future perspectives for developing relevant roadmaps and strategies are closely examined during the preparation of this brief.

This study relies on qualitative data extracted from different data collection methods: individual interviews, focus groups, and round table discussions. During the first stage, individual interviews were conducted with civil society members, government representatives, policy experts, IDPs and representatives of international stakeholders. The second stage involved focus group discussions with young activist groups. The third stage was dedicated to roundtable discussions with representatives of relevant governmental and nongovernmental institutions. Throughout all three stages of the data collection process, respondents were accessed through a purposive sampling method. On the other hand, statistical data was collected through secondary data and compiled from government documents and data sources of international organizations.

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