The 80-page Ipas report, Future-Proofing: The Professionalization of an Anti-Rights Youth Generation examines the recruitment, funding, coordination, and mobilization of young people within anti-rights movements.
Using examples from the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa, the report documents how anti-rights individuals, organizations, political parties, and billionaire donors have successfully scaled these strategies, with grave implications for universal human rights.
By building pipelines through education, legal training, and political mentorship and organizing, young leaders are positioned to shape public discourse, influence legislation, and normalize far-right ideologies. These efforts are reinforced by right-wing media ecosystems and amplified by far-right youth influencers on social media.
This crisis requires deliberate responses that include planning beyond short-term policy wins. It demands intentional investment in youth-led leadership, infrastructures of care, and intergenerational solidarity to ensure that human rights advocacy remains resilient, inclusive, and visionary in the face of organized and increasingly younger opposition. With the support and input from youth human rights activists, we propose the following recommendations:
Future-Proofing: The Professionalization of an Anti-Rights Youth Generation
1.
Strengthen youth engagement and movement building
- Invest in youth-led and youth-centered programs that promote inclusive values, critical media literacy and civic engagement to provide alternative leadership pathways.
- Support leadership programs that build young people’s skills and networks outside ideologically extreme pipelines, alongside peer-to-peer mentoring, fair compensation, burnout prevention, mental health support and sustainable funding for youth advocates.
2.
Monitor legal advocacy networks
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Track anti-rights legal clinics and litigation efforts—especially those targeting reproductive and LGBTQI+ rights, climate change and gender equality—to anticipate and respond to policy shifts.
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Invest in progressive legal training to support legal champions, including through bar associations, fellowships and rapid alert systems.
3.
Promote alternative narratives and cultural spaces
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Invest in culture, arts, storytelling and digital media projects that help youth to reclaim their histories, identities and futures.
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Support content creators and platforms that challenge extremist ideologies and create space for youth-driven leadership.
4.
Enhance digital counter-messaging
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Develop strategic communication campaigns to counter misinformation and disinformation and reframe public debates on sexual and reproductive health and rights, particularly online.
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Equip youth advocates with the tools, training and secure digital infrastructure needed to reach diverse audiences in multiple languages.
5.
Foster interfaith and ecumenical dialogue
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Build alliances with moderate and progressive religious groups to challenge extremist narratives.
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Support interfaith and intergenerational dialogue that advances pluralism and human rights.
6.
Support international and regional democratic norms and coordinate policy responses
- Engage international and regional institutions more effectively to prevent anti-rights actors from shaping human rights agendas.
- Strengthen cross-border coordination, youth participation and accountability in global policy spaces.
7.
Invest in education and critical thinking
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Support public education, critical thinking and inclusive curricula that strengthen democratic resilience.
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Prioritize training in areas where rights-based knowledge is under threat, including sexual and reproductive health care.
8.
Ensure public support is not diverted to youth anti-rights groups
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Prevent public funding from subsidizing organizations that promote exclusionary or authoritarian agendas.
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Increase transparency around anti-rights funding pipelines and strengthen watchdog efforts.
9.
Hold the line and stay vigilant
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Monitor where funding cuts and policy shifts are creating openings for anti-rights movements.
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Build systems that identify threats early and support rapid, coordinated responses across sectors and borders.
10.
Protect youth activists from backlash and repression
- Provide holistic protection for youth activists facing harassment, surveillance and criminalization.
- This includes digital security, legal support, psychosocial care and safeguards against retaliation.