About us
Who are we?
GROW is a youth think tank whose vocation is to defend human rights around the world. Our mission is to publish studies, reports and articles in which we formulate proposals. In order to do so, we wish to interact with a diversity of actors: civil society, elected representatives, social partners, national and international, governmental and non-governmental organisations, the worlds of research, culture, administration, etc.
Our values
GROW embodies the will of a generation concerned with building a fairer, egalitarian, and humane world. We are dedicated to being and remaining an independent association. We do not receive any instructions, recommendations or guidance from anyone, which allows us to maintain our impartiality and objectivity regarding the issues we deal with.
GROW is attached to individual and collective freedoms. Our struggles are rooted in a series of values and promote the adoption of legislation guaranteeing human beings the right to freely dispose of their bodies, to be free to express their opinions and beliefs, religious or otherwise. GROW also stands up for minorities in their struggle for the recognition and enforcement of their rights. GROW promotes the right of peoples to self-determination.
Our means of action
To defend our ideals, we use a wide variety of means. The centre of our work is writing articles. We produce informative and analytical articles. Additionally, in order to make recommendations to the different actors involved, we also produce policy briefs and reports in which we search for and identify concrete solutions. To go beyond written work, we also organise meetings, conferences and debates to enable experts and concerned people to speak on the various subjects we deal with. We are committed to producing content that is accessible to as many people as possible, regardless of our background and specialities. This is why it is central for us to guarantee the understanding of everyone: we thus offer cultural recommendations, portraits of influential and committed personalities on our social networks; as well as newsletters, making a link between societal issues and the defense of human rights.
Our goals
We hope that one day, no matter where we were born, our socio-professional origin, our gender, our skin colour or our religion, we will all be able to realize our potential without fearing for our physical or mental integrity. Through GROW, we seek to inform as many people as possible about these issues that are often ignored and/or silenced by the media and politicians, to raise awareness and to propose solutions by means of our research work.
Why create a think tank as youth?
The youth are underrepresented in the discourse and decision-making regarding human rights. Yet, we are convinced that our vision and opinions bring added value to the public debate and are essential. As actors of tomorrow’s world, it is our decisions that will shape the future of our societies, in which human rights are constantly being called into question. As such, our duty is to promote them and to raise awareness about these issues among as many people as possible, of all ages, from all backgrounds and from all walks of life.
A message from the founding Presidents
Independent youth think tanks are rare. They are very often developed within an educational institution and do not go beyond that level. We started from there. We both wanted to create a project of our own, related to a subject that moves and thrills us. We became friends during our studies at ESPOL, and we quickly realised that we shared a common interest in specialising in the struggle for human rights. Very naturally, our project focused on this field. We do not pretend to be able to change the world by ourselves, but the idea is to raise awareness and to inform about human rights at our level. We wish to participate in a collective awareness that can only favour the progression of these rights. It is in this sense that the form of a think tank appeared to us to be the best suited to build a common reflection, to write on these subjects and to share our work.