Speaking on Friday in Rabat at a seminar dedicated to youth leadership, the head of Morocco’s National Human Rights Council (CNDH), Amina Bouayach, delivered a pointed message: giving young people a genuine say in decisions that shape their future is no longer optional. It is, she argued, a precondition for public trust in institutions and, more broadly, for durable peace.
Addressing the gathering, titled « From Intergenerational Renewal to Influential Leadership: Investing in Youth for Sustainable Peace, » Bouayach said that renewing generations cannot be reduced to simply handing over responsibilities. It requires, she said, a real transfer of experience and a social vision capable of responding to ongoing economic and cultural change.
The CNDH president described a trust crisis running through institutions at the national, regional and international levels. Social and economic inequality, weakening institutional effectiveness, fragile multilateral cooperation and a persistent gap between stated commitments and actual results are, in her view, fuelling frustration that falls hardest on young people, who face obstacles in accessing jobs, public life and social justice.
She warned that this frustration risks being exploited through hate speech, exclusion and violence, particularly as disinformation and certain communication campaigns can turn legitimate grievance into outright hostility, threatening social cohesion and dialogue across Africa, Europe and beyond.
Youth aspirations, Bouayach argued, should be read as a signal of shortcomings in participation mechanisms and institutional performance, at a time when younger generations, immersed in a digital environment, are demanding recognition and an effective role in decisions that affect their future.
She called for dialogue channels to be more than a formality: young people must be able to put forward proposals and have a genuine influence on outcomes, with clear visibility into what becomes of their initiatives. Participation that stays merely symbolic, she cautioned, with no real bearing on public policy, risks deepening frustration rather than easing it.
Investing in youth leadership, she concluded, means removing barriers to participation, guaranteeing access to education and reliable information, and building mechanisms that encourage responsible civic engagement, so that protest and grievance can be channelled into civic participation and dialogue that produce shared solutions.
