About us.
SDLP Youth is the youth section of the Social Democratic and Labour Party which operates in Northern Ireland. Pursuing the ideals of equality, human rights, social democracy, environmentalism, and reconciliation are the crux of the SDLP Youth’s purpose. SDLP Youth plays an important role within the activity and operations of the SDLP, and has been a strong voice in the political life of the North for many decades. We aim to encourage stronger activism within our membership through our activities and to provide a forum for discussion inclusive of all our young activists.
It is our aim to assist the creation of a society based on social justice and equality of opportunity and the promotion of economic development which combats social exclusion and poverty to achieve fairness for all. In our aims we wish to see:
the abolition of all forms of discrimination based upon religion, gender, age, disability, race, ethnic origin, nationality, class, social background, political belief or sexual orientation and the promotion of equality for all;
the promotion of arts and culture with a special responsibility to cherish and develop all the diverse aspects of our national cultures;
the public ownership and democratic control of such essential industries and services as the common good requires; and
the protection of the environment in order to guarantee that it efficiently provides for the essential benefit of future generations through sustainable development and the achievement of social and economic justice for all of the people.
We are also proudly pro-European believing the EU, as John Hume said, "is the best example of conflict resolution in the history of the world" for which our own peace process in Northern Ireland draws its influence.
It is the belief of SDLP Youth that we must strive for a shared future of all in Northern Ireland through agreed and mandated political structures and institutions, with the common goal of healing the divisions of the past that have separated the people of Ireland. With this in mind the agreed and new Ireland imagined by Hume, Mallon and others is possible through reconciliation and the unity of the people of Ireland, not just erasing a border.
SDLP Youth has been a driving force for policy discussion and policy change within the SDLP over the years for which we take great pride and continue in our aim to put social democracy, a shared future through reconciliation and environmental sustainability at the heart of SDLP policy.
