The second Youth, Peace and Security Action Plan of Finland (Visit an external site. The link opens in a new tab.) was published on 1 December 2025. To celebrate the occasion, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Youth, Peace and Security Network organised a launch event, which was opened by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Elina Valtonen.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs justified the importance of the new action plan by reminding that the security environment today is quite different from when the first action plan was published in 2021 – let alone when the UN Security Council adopted the Youth, Peace and Security resolution in 2015. According to Valtonen, the current security situation requires a comprehensive approach to security policy, which is why the new action plan affects numerous different ministries.
“We want to emphasise the central role of young people in the field of peace and security and highlight ways to strengthen the participation of young people,” the Foreign Minister concluded.
As a member of the Security Council, Finland would put the NRT agenda into practice
In her speech, Ambassador and Head of the UN Security Council Campaign Satu Suikkari-Kleven discussed how Finland could promote the Youth, Peace and Security agenda as a member of the UN Security Council. Finland will launch a campaign next year with the aim of being elected to the Security Council for the term 2029–30.
As a member of the Security Council, Finland could ensure that the principles of the resolutions are put into practice, for example in political missions – a goal that has also been included in the new action plan – and that the voice of young people would be heard more strongly in the Security Council, for example through thematic discussion sessions. Overall, the ambassador said that she hoped that agendas promoting inclusive peace, such as Youth, Peace and Security and Women, Peace and Security, would be seen as part of the same whole.
Who can influence foreign and security policy?
The panelists at the launch event were talking about youth agency.
Camilla Ojala, a representative of the Finnish YMCA, pointed out that influencing politics can have personal consequences for young people. The question is, is it safe for young people to talk about foreign and security policy?
The same question had also surfaced in October, when a group of young people from eight different countries – including Ojala – travelled to Ethiopia to plan the promotion of national NRT action plans in different countries.
“But even in Finland, this issue cannot be referred to lightly,” Ojala reminded.
Ojala referred to a survey (Visit an external site. The link opens in a new tab.) produced for the new action programme, in which 51.5 percent of respondents felt that the risk of being subjected to bullying, harassment or hate speech prevents young people from participating in decision-making.
Maija Ågren from the Strategy Unit of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs reminded that youth participation is still quite gendered. Girls’ perceived civic competence is lower than boys’ from a very young age.
The fact that the foreign and security policy debate is often limited to a relatively small group of experts, or that the means of democratic participation are defined by previous generations, does not strengthen the agency of young people. Young people are more accustomed to more individual influence, Ågren noted.