The élysée Treaty; Supporting Youth Collaborations: Lessons for the Great Lakes Region

During my recent visit to Brussels and Berlin on an exchange program as part of the Great lakes Youth Network for Dialogue & Peace project delegation with support from Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, we held several meetings with different policy makers and youth organizations. In particular, the interaction with the Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO) clearly showed that the Great Lakes Youth Network for Dialogue & Peace project was modeled after Adenauer and De Gaulle vision of ‘strengthening the bonds that unite French and German youth, increasing their mutual understanding and bringing about, encouraging and carrying out meetings and exchanges’ to inspire and empower the youth to foster meaningful dialogues and cultivate a culture of peace between the countries.

The need to build a strong and sustainable bond by France and German become a necessity with the growing population of youth in Europe despite a breakdown in bilateral relations between the 19th and 20th with the idea of the two neighbors’ reconciliation being unimaginable. As observed by FGYO, “not only were conditions ripe for a profound shift in the way young people viewed their neighbors, but the weight of this shift enabled the new generation to impose its ‘images of the other’ on its elders. By winning them over to the cause of bilateral reconciliation and cooperation, the FGYO had the opportunity to influence older generations as well”. Thus, the visit of Germans’ then Federal Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer to France’s then prime minister and later President, Charles de Gaulle’s private country home became the foundation upon which to resume relations between France and Germany on the levels of culture, business and politics. The bilateral reconciliation process became the driving force behind European unification and integration with the youth playing a significant role; so would the Great Lakes Youth Network for Dialogue & Peace project’s vision on peace and security in the region.

The recognition of youth as an integral part in building sustainable bilateral relations of the two countries was seen during the preparation for the official visits by the President and the chancellor to their respective partner countries, where Adenauer requested that his counterpart speaks to German Youth. And when he eventually visited, in his speech on 9th September, 1962 in Ludwigsburg, De Gaulle further highlighted the role of youth in not just their countries but the whole of Europe. “While it remains the task of our two states to promote economic, political and cultural cooperation, it should be up to you and the French youth to encourage you and us to come ever closer together, to get to know each other better and to form closer ties! The future of our two countries, the cornerstone on which Europe’s unity can and must be built, and the highest trump card for the freedom of the world remain mutual respect, trust and friendship between the people of France and Germany”, he said. Hence, in 1963 the élysée Treaty was signed establishing the Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO) to foster youth cooperation between the two countries.

The efforts of the Great lakes Youth Network for Dialogue & Peace project in bringing together over 100 youth initiatives from Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi was trying to ignite the dream of Adenauer and General De Gaulle in the region through the different exchange cross border activities, regional multi stakeholders dialogues and the regional summer schools all giving young people an opportunity to embrace the cultural, social and political differences and seek to look at each other as one people despite the past or current conflicts which have so much divided and affected the social, cultural, economic and political fabric of society.

Unfortunately, the Great lakes Youth Network for Dialogue & Peace was a project unlike the Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO) which was established by Treaty legitimizing and empowering the office to fulfill its mandate. Additionally, the project did less in engaging more with the East African Community secretariat despite existing regional tensions to establish concrete meaningful youth led channels or platforms at regional level on peace and security. The fragility of the security situation in the region, especially the Eastern DRC, complicated possible meaningful dialogue among youth. In fact, at one point DRC participants refused to attend a regional multi-stakeholders dialogue in Rwanda in protest. However, the ray of hope for keeping Adenauer and De Gaulle vision alive is on through the Youth Coalition for Peace and Dialogue a nonprofit organization to continue fostering meaningful cross border dialogue harnessed through the power the network built in past 3 years of implementing the project.

The coalition is composed of member initiatives from Uganda, Rwanda, DRC, Tanzania?? and Burundi with a coordinating secretariat based in Uganda to continue the work sparked off by European Union (EU) and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) on peace-building. The coalition also recognizes that the conflicts in the great-lakes regions are interconnected to other regions and factors thus, the need to engage with several stakeholders on multifaceted issues concerning sustainable peace beyond the region.