ENJUVES Colombia shares their story of using talking circles at a youth gathering focused on strengthening efforts to uphold environmental and human rights.
Youth Leadership with Tejiendo Pensamiento and ENJUVES Colombia
In the spring of 2025, young land defenders, Indigenous peoples, Tejiendo Pensamiento (collective of young women) and others came together at a Youth Gathering through ENJUVES Colombia (Encuentro de Juventudes por Escazú - Colombia); a youth network dedicated to promoting the Escazú Agreement in international spaces across Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Escazú Agreement is a landmark regional human rights treaty that guarantees access to environmental information, public participation and justice in Latin America and the Caribbean. Article 9 describes States’ obligation to protect human rights defenders in environmental matters and guarantee their rights, including those related to access to information, participation, and justice, as set forth in the agreement.
The ENJUVES Colombia network is organized to strengthen youth capacities in their territories and communities, equipping them with tools to defend human rights and the environment. By creating spaces for advocacy, political debate, and collaborative efforts, the initiative fosters support networks and engagement with key stakeholders such as governments, institutions, and other local communities.
In the Colombian context, it is essential to involve youth facing socio-environmental conflicts by providing them with knowledge about the Escazú Agreement, its implementation, and its connection to peacebuilding, environmental justice, and human rights at the territorial level. Layered within this is Tejiendo Pensamiento’s focus on creating training spaces to strengthen skills in negotiation, citizen science, and territorial defense leadership, among other activities. This enables young people to monitor and track actions while strengthening networks focused on care, environmental democracy, social justice, and gender equity—all rooted in community-based approaches.
Circle was a key aspect of the ENJUVES Colombia Youth Gathering, as they used talking circles to share ancestral knowledge, promote care-centered and reciprocal approaches, and strengthen capacities in understanding climate change and its gendered impacts. These talking circles are rooted in a methodology based on the ancestral concept of the Tulpa – a sacred space for gathering, reflection, and collective learning that fosters community-based knowledge building. The Tulpa serves as a platform for exchanging wisdom and lived experiences, where every voice is honored and decisions are made collectively for the common good. It contributes to creating an inclusive space where young people can share their territorial experiences, strengthen their efforts to uphold environmental and human rights, and advocate for inclusive policies.
As Chrsitina Baldwin and Ann Linnea, authors of The Circle Way, often describe, “Circle is the root: methodology is the fruit.” We are heartened to lift up Tejiendo Pensamiento and ENJUVES Colombia in their commitment both to circle as a way of being and gathering, along with their care in centering the realities of communities impacted by systems of extractivism and patriarchy as they advance youth and Indigenous women’s rights in forums on climate change, biodiversity, and gender justice.
Please enjoy this 3-minute video from their gathering here.
Thank you ENJUVES Colombia for sharing your circle story with The Circle Way global network as an example of the essential practice of turning to one another to uphold uphold racial, ethnic, gender, disability, economic, and environmental justice, and in imagining a different way!