We have updated our manual on developing effective interventions from human rights, participatory democracy, development, to environmental protection; focusing on the role of youth towards achieving a sustainable development built on the respect, protection, and fulfilment of human rights and on the basis of democratic values. Youth's roles in social, economic, and environment development is the key factor in transforming the course of human history, and there is so much to learn from youth who are mobilising their peers, families, and communities towards positive social transformation.

The manual emphasises on critical thinking about development in relation to human rights, and to the environment. It begins by defining human rights and their relationship to democracy. Then moves from the normative approach of thinking about development to asking and re-thinking what development is, and whose experience should be expressed through development when we see that the outcomes of development in today's society is massive inequality, human rights violations, and environmental destruction. So, if development benefits just a very few people, the rich, what are the ways in which people’s experiences and voices can become part of the process of development in the way that respects our human rights, and the rights of the environment.

The manual looks at the basic-need, capability, and rights-based approaches as lenses through which to look at what development is and what it is doing, and then questions the validity, universality, authenticity of these approaches. It looks at the human needs as the basis of defining development and the relationship between those needs and the means with which those needs are realised in relation to the environment. It concludes by providing guides on human rights advocacy; emphasising on analysing human rights violations before developing any intervention, valuing the importance of human rights towards development and environmental protection. Go to the manual !