A minor matter? The place of young people in an EU human security doctrine

This article is a modified version of a paper written for the LSE-based 'Study Group on Europe's Security Capabilities'. It argues for the inclusion of children and young people as a specific constituency within a proposed new Human Security doctrine for EU military and peacekeeping interventions. The article outlines the importance of children/youth in relation to certain key principles of this Human Security approach, including the principles of: a) primacy of human rights; b) clear political authority; c) a 'bottom-up' approach, and d) multilateralism. It looks at a number of initiatives within the UN and EU that already recognise the importance of children and youth, and it concludes by suggesting strategies for raising the profile of children/youth in the proposed EU Human Security agenda.