The Human Rights Education Forum: Unleashing Human Rights took place in Budapest, bringing together participants from around the world to exchange ideas, share experiences, and strengthen their work for the years ahead. Held from 9 to 11 December 2025 at the European Youth Centre, this year's Forum comes at a time when human rights are under unprecedented pressure worldwide, making collective thinking, dialogue, and action more essential than ever.

Co-organised by the Council of Europe and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, with non-governmental partners including Amnesty International and the European Youth Forum, the Forum welcomed over 200 participants from all regions of the world. They included young multipliers and activists, education professionals from formal and non-formal sectors, government representatives and youth leaders from civil society organisations.

In 2025, the European Youth Foundation awarded 3.6 million euros to 130 grants, including 13 projects under the Special Call for young people from Ukraine. Over 300 young people joined the EYF training courses, information sessions and other support measures. The EYF carried out partnership visits to 18 funded youth organisations.

A 2025 highlight was the European Youth Foundation reform process, which led to new Operational Regulations.  

In 2026, the EYF website and guidelines for youth organisations will be updated. Information sessions will be held throughout January 2026 to ensure that grantee organisations have information and tools to implement their initiatives with EYF support. New calls for proposals will be published in spring 2026, launching the EYF new online grant-making system.

The EYF team wishes to thank to all the youth organisations and young people that throughout 2025 took meaningful initiatives to promote democracy and human rights and build a culture of peace.

The Council of Europe Youth Department invites regional, national and local organisations or institutions to express their interest in partnering on human rights education with and for young people within the framework of Compass National and Regional Training Courses in human rights education in 2026.

The cooperation is envisioned in a format that relies on strategic partnerships, which aim to promote a culture of human rights by supporting the implementation of the Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education (EDC/HRE).

The Compass national and regional training courses are initiated by national or regional organisations and/or institutions committed to providing and ensuring the quality of EDC/HRE, with the support of the Council of Europe Youth Department.

As democratic backsliding accelerates across Europe and globally, youth workers, policy makers and researchers met in Strasbourg from 3 to 5 December to strengthen democracy, its young defender and activists. The international conference “Democracy in Action : Youth Work Matters!” was organised by the International Youth Service of the Federal Republic of Germany (IJAB), in co-operation with the Youth Department of the Council of Europe. It brought together 80 participants around 3 main objectives: catching up with reality, creating solidarity and taking action.

Between 23 and 29 November, 25 young people aged 16 to 25 from 21 countries across Europe and beyond gathered for the study session “Local Youth Councils as Advocates for Democracy”. The event was organised by DYPALL Network in collaboration with the Youth Department of the Council of Europe at the European Youth Centre Strasbourg.

The study session brought together representatives of local youth councils and young people engaged in youth-policy advocacy to improve the quality of participatory youth structures. The focus was on strengthening the capacity of Local Youth Councils and similar bodies, and providing a comprehensive framework of standards and tools that support their participatory, inclusive, and sustainable functioning.

The European Youth Foundation has awarded grants for initiatives to be implemented by youth organisations in 2026: 27 grants for one-off international co-operation activities, 21 long term co-operation activities, 43 structural grants for international youth organisations and networks and a grant for the European Youth Forum, for its contribution to the Council of Europe work in the field of youth.

These grants support initiatives that contribute to the thematic priorities of the Council of Europe youth sector, on a variety of topics, such as strategic organisational development of civil society, leadership skills building in youth organisations, youth in local democracy, human rights education, peace education, climate action, media literacy to counter fake news, manipulation and propaganda, developing skills on AI tools and fighting disinformation, tackling exclusion and hate speech, creating inclusive spaces for LGBTI+ youth to address the anti-gender movement, enhancing  gender equality and inclusion of young people with disabilities; tackling mental health or creating youth democratic processes to tackle shrinking civic spaces.  

The Council of Europe project "Youth for Democracy in Ukraine: Phase IV" strengthens participatory youth policies and youth work in Ukraine during the war, taking into account the needs of young people.