Human Rights Day 2025: My Youth Advocacy Journey and What I Learned in Lviv

What inspired me to take the ICRD course

I’m Molly Taylor, a part-time Master’s student in International Child Rights and Development. I never imagined studying a Master’s—let alone specialising in children’s rights—but my lived experiences of injustice and having my rights violated naturally led me into advocacy and social action from a young age.

When I discovered a course that aligned so closely with my experiences, it felt like the right next step. Even as someone who has lived through rights violations, I’ve learned that there is still a limited shared understanding of how to proactively embed children’s rights in policy and practice. The ICRD course stood out because it bridges this gap. It combines strong academic foundations with practical rights-based approaches, offering in-depth learning on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, global childhoods, child protection, and health.

What felt particularly special was the emphasis on practical tools such as child rights impact assessments—frameworks that place children’s rights and wider human rights at the centre of decision-making. These approaches help everyday people, not just professionals, use rights-based language to advocate for themselves and others. I wanted to learn how to embed these frameworks into my own work outside university, especially within youth advocacy and social change.

My youth advocacy journey and the #iWill Movement

I’ve been involved in advocacy for as long as I can remember. Growing up with rights violations meant I was always thinking about how I could protect and uphold the rights of others. One of my earliest experiences was during the Syrian Refugee Crisis, when I organised a fundraiser at school to support displaced children. At the time, I didn’t call it “advocacy”—I simply cared.

That care stayed with me. When I started university at 21, I became estranged from my family and experienced deep loneliness. I soon learned I wasn’t alone: around two million young people across the UK feel lonely, and loneliness has both emotional and physical health consequences. I began campaigning by creating “loneliness postcards” to encourage young people to share their experiences, and I hosted events on campus. This work grew quickly, and I was invited to speak at the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Loneliness in Westminster, sharing my lived experience with the then-Minister for Loneliness, Stuart Andrew. My insight helped shape a Department for Culture, Media and Sport roundtable on student loneliness.

This journey led me to the #iWill Movement—first as an ambassador and now as co-chair. From 2013 to 2020, #iWill recognised 50 young people each year for their social action. In 2020, it evolved into a long-term movement. Today, we support over 400 young people, with 450+ organisations signed up to our Power of Youth Charter. We also work with “Towns and Cities of Social Action,” recognising that youth-led action thrives most when rooted in community.

The #iWill Movement is incredibly special to me. It is the first place that truly saw and valued my whole self. It celebrates lived experience as a strength, is youth-led in both culture and structure, and builds the community infrastructure needed so young people don’t have to create change alone. Now, I have the honour of being co-chair over the next 2 years.

Not Easy, But Move: My Visit to Lviv, Ukraine

In late November, I travelled to Lviv, Ukraine—the current European Youth Capital—after being nominated by Opera Circus, an artist-led performing arts organisation.

My visit feels especially significant as we mark Human Rights Day on 10 December. This year’s UN campaign, “Our Everyday Essentials,” seeks to reaffirm the enduring relevance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and its core values: equality, justice, freedom, and dignity. The campaign highlights the extraordinary nature of the UDHR’s founding, and the essential, everyday presence of human rights woven into our lives. My time in Lviv showed me exactly what this looks like.

Earlier in the year, Opera Circus through The Complete Freedom From Truth project hosted a 10-day cultural exchange in Dorset for young people from Lviv and the UK. They built friendships, shared creative practices, and used arts as a tool for collective healing in the shadow of war, they are supported by the Council of Europe and King’s College London Art and Conflict hub. My visit continued this work.

I joined a three-day programme with international youth delegates and organisations supporting the European Youth Capital initiative. We heard directly from young Ukrainians and youth workers about how, despite living through conflict, youth spaces and creative programmes are helping them mobilise, organise, and stay hopeful. Opera Circus and TCFT’s work was showcased as an example of how international arts programmes can build solidarity and provide platforms for youth expression.

One message echoed everywhere: “Not easy, but move.” More than a motto but a declaration that it’s not easy but young people and their communities continue to mobilise and resist.

Lviv is also a UNICEF Child and Youth Friendly City, and this commitment was visible—in small drawing tables placed outside cafés for children to play, in accessible public spaces, and in how the city centres young people in its cultural identity. These simple gestures turn human rights from ideals into lived experience.

We visited “Those Who Carry the Sun-Spark,” an art installation symbolising the power and energy young people bring to rebuilding their communities. Standing before it, I felt the UDHR’s values - dignity, equality, agency - made visible.

One of the most inspiring places was Urban Camp Lviv, the largest youth centre in the region. Once an abandoned Soviet-era Palace of Culture, it has been transformed into a modern space for creativity, community, and temporary housing for displaced families. It represents resilience, renewal, and the belief that young people deserve safe, hopeful spaces.

Being part of the closing of Lviv’s European Youth Capital programme expanded my understanding of youth work in conflict, international solidarity, and the creativity young people bring to rebuilding communities.

As we mark Human Rights Day, Lviv reminds us that human rights are both extraordinary and everyday—and that young people continue to move forward, even when it’s not easy.

For those reading this: your lived experience is your superpower.
Advocating for yourself or others isn’t easy — it’s brave, it’s vulnerable, and it takes strength. But please don’t give up.

If you’re wondering how to get involved in advocacy, start with curiosity. Reach out to organisations or people already doing this work — you’d be surprised how willing they are to help and guide you. Getting involved through an organisation also gives you structure, community, and the reassurance that you’re not doing this alone.

Speak to Molly

Molly is happy to be contacted via LinkedIn.