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  WPAY review - day IV & V - Posted By: Franziska Seel
I’m sitting at Newark airport, waiting for my flight back to Toronto, which is 2 hours delayed – a good moment to sit down and write a last update about the events at the UN this week.
Thursday saw the General Assembly review of the World Programme of Action for Youth. There were quite a few really good speeches from youth delegates. My favorite two were from Erik, the Dutch Youth Delegate (no wonder, as Ben and I have been helping him edit his speech :-P) and Victoria, the Norwegian Youth Delegate. Erik focused his speech on youth unemployment and Victoria, who is a refugee from Rwanda, on the rights of young immigrants – because of her personal background, it was probably the most touching speech of all.
There were also quite a few disappointing speeches though. The Canadian one, to name just one example, sounded more like a speech written by the Canadian government, rather than a youth speech. A lot of people were also missing the passion and vision that I would youth delegates expect to have. But in general it was good to see so many young people speak at such a high-level forum.
On Friday, we did the last preparations for our side-event on “Strengthening youth participation in decision-making”. The event was in my opinion a great success. We first had Renaldas and Joao from the European Youth Forum speak about the EYF and National Youth Councils, and more concretely the co-management system as an excellent example of youth participation on a national and regional level. After that I talked about the World Summit on the Information Society Youth Caucus (and of course showed parts of our movie) and Jen added to it by talking more broadly about how ICTs enable youth participation in decision-making (using the Youth Caucus as an example). I also officially launched the revamp of our VOICE section.
The third case study of successful youth participation in decision-making was presented by Leif from the EYF, who talked about the CSD Youth Caucus. Originally we had invited Emily to talk about the ad-hoc working group on Youth and the MDGs, which came out of the CSD Youth Caucus, but unfortunately, she couldn’t join us and so I took on her part as well. Lastly, Erik and Hanna, the Swedish Youth Delegate, talked about their role as Youth Delegates and how they were selected.
I believe we had a great and inspiring program, outlining many different ways of how youth can effectively influence decision-making on various levels. Joop, the head of the UN Youth Program, was there to make a few closing remarks and he used the chance to look back at the week and reflect about what was good and what could have been better. I think, one outstanding remark that many of us had observed and critiqued ourselves, was the absence of adults. It almost seemed as all the countries, which had sent youth delegates, were now thinking: well, if we have our youth at the events, then we don’t need to go there anymore ourselves. But of course, if this is what is happening, then we don’t need youth delegates. If at the end, young people are sitting in the UN General Assembly, presenting great speeches but ending up talking again just to each other – then, what is the purpose of this exercise? Young people need a place in government delegations to the GA, so that they can raise their voice and tell these governments why youth participation is important and how they can work together with young people for a better future of their countries.
The week ended with many of us going Salsa dancing to a club in Lower East Side. It was a fantastic evening and indeed a grand finale of a very productive week for me.
The picture shows me and Jen in the General Assembly hall. For more pictures of the week, pleas have a look at my online photo album.
| October 8, 2005 | 19:37:11 |
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  UN Day Seven - Posted By: Frederick Bernas
The final day of a weird and wonderful wonderful week. What can I say? To be perfectly honest, it was a bit anti-climactic after the hectic previous days. I didn't even spend very long at the UN - had to pack everything up in the hotel and check out first.
Once that was all done I went to one of the final side events with Keeley, which was surprisingly well-attended considering the timing. It was hosted by the European Youth Forum and TakingITGlobal, an interesting combination, and went pretty well. Presentations about both organisations were followed by a short discussion in which people reflected on the week. A Secretariat employee from the Youth Programme summed everything up.
It really has been unbelievable. I never thought it would be so busy, but that was part of the experience. I've hardly had any time to myself at all. People did warn me, but it's impossible to predict anyway because you never really know until it happens.
All the people I've met are absolutely fantastic. I still struggle to comprehend that within the UN there are 191 countries and representatives from each. Hearing global perspectives from other youth delegates was one of the best things about the week.
I've learnt a great deal about how the institution functions and it's a lot more complicated than I ever thought. For example, when I'd read resolutions or other documents before I never realised how much negotiation and deliberation it takes to get things agreed. You just see it on the page and it's impossible to tell, but people have worked for hours and hours to make it happen.
The youth resolution was looking decent last time I saw. Most others I've discussed it with have said positive things and that's a good sign. Unfortunately I didn't manage to organise things for the paragraph I wanted on youth-led development, it just went too fast and a few major circumstances were beyond my control. But there's still some strong text in there on that subject, so I'm not too worried really.
I think the youth delegates achieved good things as a group. Managing to get photo opportunities with Kofi Annan and Jan Eliasson shows we were on the radar and people knew what we were doing. Statements made by youth reps were all of a very high standard as well; although I didn't see them all I'm reliably informed everyone was great!
It's sad that many of us have left now. Keeley and Kristofer went tonight but I'm sticking around for another week to try and get the film organised. I didn't manage to sort out my NGO pass today so will have to do so on Monday. There's always something interesting happening at the UN so it will be good to stay and witness some of the 'normal' non-youth business.
| October 7, 2005 | 23:45:00 |
Filed under: UNGA60 |
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UN Day Six - Posted By: Frederick Bernas
October 6 was always going to be a big day. The General Assembly Plenary took place and there was a massive list of speakers! It was good to see many youth reps take the podium. Structurally speaking, the meeting consisted of two three-hour sections with two hours' break in between.
During this break we had another good photo opportunity - with Jan Eliasson, President of the GA. He was a very friendly, energetic man and spoke with many of the us after the pictures were taken.
Since there are three youth delegates from the UK, we decided to split the time between us. I had the first hour of both parts and saw some good speeches. Unfortunately I also missed quite a few, but I had to go downtown on the subway to collect a video camera for filming next week.
Although many youth delegates have now gone home, a few will still be here and I want to try and do some interviews about their experiences this week. It's a shame I couldn't get the equipment before but there's just been no time!
Apart from these things, nothing much really happened. The Plenary took up a lot of time, but this wasn't as busy as the previous days. Some youth delegates were on their way out and it was sad to say goodbye. In the evening there was another gathering with people from NGOs and that was good fun.
| October 6, 2005 | 23:30:00 |
Filed under: UNGA60 |
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WPAY review - day II & III - Posted By: Franziska Seel
My days here at the UN are long and packed. I usually leave the house in the morning at 9am and don’t get back home before 11pm. So, as I already assumed, it’s not as easy to keep up with writing about the events going on here… But I’ll try to write a short summary at least with the highlights of the last two days:
Yesterday, I attended the Launch of the World Youth Report 2005, parts of the 3rd Committee meeting session and a wonderful evening event, which was organized by the UN Youth Program. They had invited a theater group from a local school in Newark, NJ, which performed a theater play on the topic of addiction and drug abuse. It was really cool! The actors were amazing and we had lots of fun after the event when Jen, Leif and I taught the kids Swedish and German! The picture shows the three of us with some of the kids – I really enjoyed the evening a lot!!
Today, Jen and I first had a meeting with the Millennium Campaign, to wrap up our partnership – which obviously, had nothing to do with WPAY. After that I had lunch with a very good friend from Germany – we had run into each other by complete chance yesterday, both not knowing that we are currently at the UN (she is doing an internship here). It was really great to see her and catch up! During lunch time I attended a side-event of the Swedish Youth Council, where Jan Eliasson, the new President of the 60th General Assembly, as well as the Swedish Youth Minister were speaking. In the afternoon I went to the roundtable discussion on “Making commitments matter”, where Romi, our regional youth editor, was speaking!! The evening saw another great event with the screening of the MTV documentary “The diary of Angelina Jolie and Dr. Jeffrey Sachs in Africa” and dinner with the guys from the European Youth Forum as well as a few others.
One of the key messages that I took out of the different discussions and events was about youth in the media: I believe in different side-events there was the talk about how young people are presented in the media and that it is mostly in a negative way. This is surely not something new to me, but it is still worth thinking about it again. As it was said during the launch of the World Youth Report 2005, the negative picture of young people in the media is actually discouraging youth about their role in society. Also, during the Swedish side-event today it was said that if people see that they are part of the society and that they have actually something to contribute and they have self-esteem, then they might be much more entrepreneurial. Thus, if you make the connection, more positive news about youth in mainstream media and more recognition of the capabilities of young people could contribute to strategies of tackling youth unemployment.
Finally, a quote that inspired me today: Jan Eliasson (who I already much liked during the DPI/NGO conference) said today: You need to have two things if you want to achieve something in life – roots and wings. Roots to remember where you come from and what makes you different from other people (your culture, your history, your family and friends), and wings to fly away and do things that others haven’t done before.
I was also very positively surprised by the Angolan chair-person of the civil society cluster during the roundtable discussion this afternoon. He seemed to be an immense supporter of youth participation, but he also made a really funny comment when he said that youth seem to be taking-over the institution (he meant the UN) with this roundtable! Why was that funny? Well, I thought it was, because it showed me how old and bureaucratic the UN is, if people think that this tiny bit of interaction that the roundtable allowed (in opposite to the usual meetings with solely prepared speeches), was already showing that young people are taking over the institution! If this is really the case, then there is much more need of youth taking over as soon as possible, as I had already thought before!
| October 6, 2005 | 00:29:02 |
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UN Day Five - Posted By: Frederick Bernas
Wednesday was another early starter. A couple of youth delegates had been rushing around all the previous day trying to arrange a meeting with Kofi Annan and the result was a hope that he might show up at a side event at nine. Unfortunately, this didn't happen and we were in the Vienna Café with little to do and quite disappointed.
However, the Secretary General did give us a very brief photo opportunity a bit later. We assembled in the delegates' lounge a good half hour before he actually showed up and we were standing around for a while after being ‘arranged’ for the photographer. Mr Annan came and went very quickly, but it was all we could really expect since he was apparently scheduled to depart for Switzerland later that day. And there's still hope that we could have a proper meeting when he gets back, although many youth delegates will have since left NYC.
I sat in the Third Committee for about an hour after this, before leaving to make my final preparations for another side event I’d been invited to speak at. Entitled ‘Youth-led Development: Linking the MDGs to the WPAY’, this event was organised by the Global Youth Action Network, Peace Child International and a few other NGOs. My role was to deliver a speech on youth employment and then sit on a panel to answer questions from the floor. This is a tricky job because quick thinking is required in response to people’s points and I haven’t got that much experience of this kind of situation.
It went well, with quite a few people showing up; we were happy because there was another side event taking place at the same time being organised by the Swedish Mission on the subject of its national youth policies. That event also had a special guest: Jan Eliasson, President of the General Assembly – so to be ‘competing’ against this and still have a full room was a good achievement.
Side events ended at 2.45 and next up was the interactive round-table session on ‘Making Commitments Matter’. Everyone was allowed to speak and the meeting was designed to produce recommendations for action and implementation of the WPAY. What I enjoyed most was the fact that NGO representatives had the chance to voice their opinions; a great number were present, all with different ideas and experiences. They’re not allowed to talk in formal meetings so this was a real opportunity.
The three-hour session was split up equally between the three WPAY clusters, with a different chair for each part. Participation was the dominant topic and took up most of the discussion, overlapping into other sections of what was supposed to be a structured discussion. That can be the disadvantage of open sessions: people often stray away from the prescribed subject. Another problem was the tendency of people to speak for longer than the four minutes they were supposed to have.
Keeley and I presented the recommendations from our side event the day before and I was pleased to be able to share those with everybody. The next step is for the three of us to produce a formal outcome document which can hopefully be sent around to all the relevant UN departments.
In the evening there was yet another side event. Two people from MTV came in to talk about and screen a film they’d produced, featuring world poverty expert Dr. Jeffrey Sachs and Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie on the road in Kenya. They travelled around villages, farms and a hospital with no running water where one doctor looked after 300 people every day. I could really feel emotions stirring in the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium and the show has been very popular on MTV already. Using popular media is a great way to reach young people, raise awareness about global dilemmas and hopefully get them involved in making a difference.
After the film there was a rousing discussion and the producers answered questions from the audience. Following this, a few of the youth delegates went to a bar and discussed the day’s happenings. It was one of the busiest yet for me, but also very productive and enjoyable at the same time.
| October 5, 2005 | 23:00:00 |
Filed under: UNGA60 |
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UN Day Four - Posted By: Frederick Bernas
This day began with a 'working breakfast' meeting at the Swiss Mission, on the subject of mental health. It was well attended, with many national youth reps coming along to discuss the situation on this issue in their countries and think about ways to improve things. Although this isn't exactly my specialist subject, I was able to contribute what I knew and it was very interesting to learn about the situation in other countries. And free food never goes down badly!
After that there was preparation work to be done with Kristofer and Keeley for our side event, scheduled to take place at 1.15. We had a runthrough of what we were all going to say just to make sure everything would go smoothly in the actual event. We rehearsed it all in the room where it would happen and felt ready once that was done.
I ran into one of the staff members of the UN Youth Programme and he invited me and lots of other youth delegates to a press conference on the launch of the 2005 World Youth Report. But this wasn't the only topic: the UN press officer went through all the day's news and we then had presentations about the report. It was dissappointing to see that most of the journalists' questions were related to other matters, not the youth report, but it was good that young people had a strong presence anyway.
Media at the UN seems to be very entrenched and centralised. Reporters have offices in the main building and there is a large area with all the latest press releases available in different languages. There's also a dedicated radio station which operates on site - several youth reps have been interviewed and hopefully this will be valuable publicity.
The official launch of the report took place shortly afterwards in one of the big meeting rooms and consisted of a series of presentations on the youth issues which haunt mankind today, given by leading experts who had contributed to the report.
Next it was time for the real side event, entitled "Youth Participation and Citizenship: Governments Must Do More!". It went incredibly well, with over 70 people squeezing in to conference room number five. They had a series of speeches and presentations, first from two guest speakers and then the three of us. We presented the outcome of the consultation conducted with young people in the UK and used these findings to stimulate discussion in the working groups that followed. Attendees were split into three separate sections, each dealing with one cluster of the WPAY, and discussed the issues; the points raised were then converted into recommendations for action.
We were all incredibly happy with the event and how everything went. In the evening we had appropriate celebrations, at a reception for youth delegates taking place at the luxurious residence of Michael O'Neill, the UK's ECOSOC Counsellor. This was also well attended, with many youth reps and national Third Committee members enjoying a pleasant evening of wine and canapes. The UK's Mission staff and the three of us youth reps stayed later and it was great to be able to ask Michael about different aspects of his job.
We went back to the hotel quite late but I had a speech to work on for the next day so was awake for a while more. On the whole this was another great and productive day, especially the side event - we really couldn't have wished for it to go any better.
| October 4, 2005 | 23:30:00 |
Filed under: UNGA60 |
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UN Day Three - Posted By: Frederick Bernas
This day began somewhat earlier than I had anticipated, with an phone call at 5am from the Ghanaian youth delegate! He'd only just arrived and wanted some basic information, so I provided that and went back to sleep.
I had to wake up around 7.30 after that though but unfortunately overslept, resulting in a havoc scene as I rushed around the room and dashed out before having breakfast. The reason for this was that I'd agreed to meet other youth reps at the UN before business got underway in order to set up the display area we'd booked and put up the posters we'd made at the weekend.
Following this I hurried to the UK Mission to meet everyone else and then, slightly pointlessly, left for the UN again barely five minutes after. It was a bit of a chaotic morning until this point, with some calm being restored at the briefing session for national youth delegates hosted by staff of the UN Youth Programme. There were a few new faces at this session and it was good to meet more people.
Shortly after this we headed to the Third Committee opening session - nothing really happened in this but it seemed quite well attended although it was nothing much more than all the usual formalities.
After a quick lunch it was time for the youth reps' side event we had prepared for on Sunday and discussed again after the briefing session earlier. For a while the event actually ever happening was in the balance. Various reasons meant that the forecast for attendance wasn't that great - the event being on a Monday was one of the main things, since it led to a lack of publicity and knowledge its existence. But in the end we decided the best option was to go ahead, no matter how many people came.
This proved to be a good choice because it went pretty well. Keynote speakers on the five new priority areas of the World Programme of Action for Youth outlined their views on each section and this was followed by discussions in smaller groups on how to initiate implemenation. And at the end participants were rewarded with a slice of cake to celebrate the WPAY's tenth birthday!
In the evening there was another side event, taking place in the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium and hosted by the UN Youth Programme. Although I arrived slightly late, it was still very interesting. A series of short film clips around the theme of youth participation were shown and this was followed by an informal chat between all present about the role of young people at the UN and other related issues.
At 8pm we had a conference room booked for a meeting of all national youth delegates - an important opportunity to gather together and discuss plans for the week. It went on for rather a long time, with a lengthy debate about the idea of giving awards to all member states sending youth reps. We all agreed this was a sensitive matter - we had to give praise without implying there was a lack of political will from nations which didn't include a young person.
It did end eventually and once the arrangements were done and dusted we took up the invitation of dinner with NGO representatives from the European Youth Forum, at their hotel situated nearby. It was again good have the chance to speak with youth delegates in an informal situation and free meals are never badly received.
Overall it was a bit of a mad day, starting early and ending late. But I had more interesting experiences and the whole process is about learning.
| October 3, 2005 | 23:00:00 |
Filed under: UNGA60 |
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WPAY review - day I - Posted By: Franziska Seel
My first day at the ten-year review of the World Programme of Action for Youth at the UN Headquarters in New York and I’m actually surprised that I find the time and energy to write down some impressions of this long day.
I arrived at the UN at 10am this morning to set up our MDG traveling arts exhibition. After just 30 minutes I had to make a terrible encounter: Somebody had stolen our guestbook :-( I was so disappointed about this and honestly couldn’t believe how rude people are to steal something in the UN building. You would assume that the people walking around in this building are all just honest diplomats working for the UN itself or national governments. But no… I just hope that nobody is going to steal some of the artwork as well. I don’t want to go home with empty hands after this one week.
As I had to set up the exhibition, I was too late to attend the opening plenary this morning, so I decided to work a bit afterwards and I had a good conversation with the representatives of the European Youth Forum, with whom we are going to organize a side-event this Friday on “Strengthening youth participation in decision-making”.
During the lunch break I attended the side-event organized by ICMYO (the International Coordination Meeting of Youth Organizations) on “Global and Regional Youth – Experiences with the WPAY”. There were two speakers from UN agencies at the event (a person from the Youth Employment Network of the ILO and a representative of UNICEF). The other people were speakers from the European Youth Forum, the World Organization of the Scout Movement, the International Movement of Catholic Students (Pax Romana) and the World Alliance of YMCAs. Two things that I found interesting at the event and that I would like to share here:
1.) The ILO is sending out a call to all youth organizations this week to submit them case studies of how youth organizations on a local level are addressing the problem of youth unemployment. ILO wants to collect about 20-30 best practices that they will compile in a report. I thought this is a really good opportunity for young people (especially those involved in YES country networks) to highlight and get some recognition for their projects. So if you are working on youth employment, please watch out the ILO/YEN website this week!
2.) The representative from the Scouts was talking about their HIV/AIDS program and I was actually quite impressed by the work they are doing on the ground. One example that I really liked was, that the Scouts are giving out red ribbons, which Scouts can put on their uniforms after successfully completing a training course on HIV/AIDS. The red ribbon also entitles the Scouts who receive it to train other young people themselves afterwards. I think this is a great way of promoting these training/education courses as well as peer-to-education. Maybe something for other organizations to copy (even TIG ourselves)? I honestly believe that giving out “certificates” or similar objects of recognition is a great way of getting young people involved in something…
After the side-event I had a quick lunch and then planned on attending the official session of the Third Committee (where youth issues are being discussed), but to my surprised, when I went there around 4pm, nobody was left in the room (the meeting was supposed to go from 3-6pm). In the hallway, I met a very disappointed Joop (head of the UN Youth Program) who told me that there hadn’t been any more speakers, so the meeting had closed early. You could really see the frustration in his face about how little member states apparently cared about youth policies… It was indeed a shame.
In the end, I spent the rest of my afternoon talking to Leif Holmberg (from the European Youth Forum). We had a very fruitful conversation in my opinion about global youth politics and the structures of youth participation.
In the evening we headed to a movie screening that the UN Youth Program had organized and to my surprise I just entered the room when Julie introduced the WSIS video that TIG had produced! It was so great to see – many of the youth reps were there and I was really happy that they had decided to show it (although I was not too happy about the fact that she chose exactly the part of the movie where I’m speaking on the National Information Society Youth Campaigns…). In fact, Julie came to me after the meeting and almost apologized for showing the video without asking TIG before for permission – but really, what should we have against it? This is what the video was made for and I was really excited to see it shown at the UN.
They also showed another excellent video that the Australian Youth Delegate from last year had produced about her work as youth delegate – it was very inspiring to see and demonstrated me again how many more such videos we need in order to get the message across that youth can meaningfully contribute to decision-making processes!
What followed was a really interesting discussion about the work of the youth delegates and now I’m waiting for all of them to finally leave the UN building and have a beer to end this first day full of events, debates and interesting conversations about the future of youth participation…
More from the WPAY review soon…
| October 3, 2005 | 21:51:46 |
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Sunday in New York - a picnic in the park - Posted By: Frederick Bernas
Well, not a lot really happened today. In the morning I went over to the UN to access free internet and post blog entries, as well as designing some promotional literature for our side event on Tuesday. It was really dark and spooky in the basement of the building, since tourists are only allowed in the upper parts, and the Vienna Café seemed slightly eerie without its usual bustling activity.
So after visiting a copy shop, surprisingly getting the flyer printed for free (perfectly legally) and grabbing a quick bite to eat it was time to meet up with a few more youth delegates for an afternoon picnic in Central Park.
It was the perfect day for this and there was a decent turnout; the picnic was a good chance to get to know other reps and plan things for the coming week. We finalised the agenda for the side event we're hosting on Monday, an interactive discussion session on the World Programme of Action for Youth's five new priority areas.
The 'picnic' went on into the early evening, well after our supplies of food had been consumed, and after that I went for dinner with a few others at a small place near our hotels. It was an early night though - after wandering the streets for a while and picking up some essential groceries, I went to bed after working on some more posters for the youth reps' display area.
| October 2, 2005 | 23:00:00 |
Filed under: UNGA60 |
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Saturday in New York - Posted By: Frederick Bernas
Most of today was spent working with the youth delegates from Germany, Sweden and Australia on some promotional materials to use in the display space we will have next week at the UN. We made posters with pictures of youth delegates, one with a list of countries sending them and some advertisments for our side event.
When I left my room to meet the others for lunch there was an interesting spectacle on 2nd Avenue. It was Nigerian independence day and NYC's Nigerian community was celebrating in style. A huge parade with drummers, dancers, trumpeters and general revelry was moving down the street and everyone was having a great time on this afternoon of unseasonal warmth.
We worked until around 6pm - first in the restaurant (although noise from the parade outside meant we had to eat in silence at first), then my hotel's club room and finally a big copying shop. I'm really satisfied with our productivity; we now have an assortment of multicoloured materials promoting youth reps at the UN.
I met up with a friend of mine who works from NYC in the evening and went to my first baseball game. It was hard to understand the rules at first and I needed quite a few detailed explanations, but when I managed to grasp the basics everything was alright. It's a game with endless statistics and there's loads of complicated stuff there, but it's still a fun sport to watch even if you don't understand everything. The stadium was quite full, apparently unusual for this time in the season and the fact that the New York Mets don't have a chance to win anything, but that gave a nice atmosphere and we had a good time.
After the game we moved on to a roof party, a traditional Manhattan experience - it was an excellent evening for it and I met some great people there.
So that was Saturday. There really seems to be no relief from my youth delegate work, but I think it's good to be busy. And it's always nice to have a good night out, there won't be much of that happening over the next week with all this work!
| October 1, 2005 | 23:00:00 |
Filed under: UNGA60 |
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Second Day at the UN - Posted By: Frederick Bernas
Today started off quite cold so I instinctively grabbed my coat from the room before departing our hotel. This was a misguided presumption, however, as the weather brightened up considerably after the early morning and it became a really nice day.
We had a slightly later start, heading over to the UK Mission around nine to work on plans for the side event we’ll be holding at the UN on Tuesday. It’s on the theme of youth participation and citizenship and we’re hoping to have a set of recommendations on this at the end of the meeting, after splitting the attendees up into three groups to work on it. There will also be two guest speakers and the three of us will be making presentations on the key findings of our consultation in each WPAY cluster area.
Mine is ‘Youth in civil society: environment, leisure and participation’ and it’s pretty much my specialist area. Since we’re focussing on participation in the side event, here are some of the interesting results we had from respondents to our survey:
- 94% supported the idea of sending youth delegates to the UN
- 91% believed opportunities for youth participation in decision-making of government-supported organisations should be strengthened
- 74% thought youth participation helps strengthen commitment to and understanding of human rights and democracy
- 53% believed young people are apathetic
The issue of youth apathy is of particular interest to me and that’s what I’ve decided to focus on in my section of the side event on Tuesday. I believe that the problem has the form of a vicious circle (see the diagram above, sorry it's not very clear). The root of it lies in the unwillingness of politicians to engage with the youth population, mostly because many of us are under the age of 18 – our views don’t matter in the political arena because there’s nothing to gain from our support. This means we aren’t interested in voting and leads to low turnout figures of just over a third in the 18-24 age group (35% and 37% in the last two general elections). The whole circular process then starts again after elections because the politicians don’t see any point in making efforts with people who probably won’t vote in large enough numbers to make a difference the next time round.
It will be very interesting to see how people from different countries (hopefully) attending the side event will react to the findings and I’m also looking forward to hearing about apathy situations from other parts of the world. Judging by people I’ve discussed it with so far, the UK isn’t the only place facing this widespread disengagement and disillusionment of youth with democracy, political processes and society in general.
Anyway, after working on this for an hour or so, the three of us headed over to around 40th street to sit in on the EU co-ordination meeting. This was very interesting; as I explained previously, European Union countries usually withhold from speaking in the informal negotiations, waiting until these separate opportunities to voice their opinions on the youth resolution. So this was basically a continuation of the previous day, with the lady from Portugal’s Mission, which is in charge of the drafting process, inviting feedback on the latest version of the resolution and noting down potential changes. The other main issue which sufficed in this meeting was on human rights and whether or not provisions for underage young people engaging in sexual intercourse should be primarily targeted at females – the other option being to make it non-gender specific. A few states were strongly advocating one side or another and the debate lasted quite a while, with the Chair from the UK having to continuously suggest possible compromises.
After this we had lunch and returned to the Mission to finalise plans for the side event. Once this was done, I worked on some possible text I’d like to see in the youth resolution on the subject of youth-led development. Young people have such a crucial role to play in the Millennium Development Goals and it’s just not recognised to the extent it should be. People don’t realise that these eight ambitious targets simply cannot be reached without the full involvement of youth and that’s what I’ll be trying to get into the resolution.
At around 2.30 we went over to the UN building and met up with a couple of other youth delegates in the Vienna Café, before going outside to a pre-arranged gathering point at 3pm and meeting a few more. It was great to see the people I’d first met in Sweden again – they’re a really committed group and what’s even more exciting is that this year there will be many more! Numbers of youth delegates have smashed previous records, with around 50 listed on the UN youth programme website last time I checked.
Next week is going to be absolutely fantastic with all these young people around, although one thing I’ve been pleasantly surprised at in the UN is the low number of elderly people. Linking back to the apathy theme, I think one of the main reasons why young people are turned off politics is the impression they have of it being old men with grey hair sitting in meetings all day. This definitely isn’t the case at the UN and I’m very happy about that.
The group went and sat in a pleasant outdoor café near the UN and we discussed plans for another side event, which it was decided in Sweden that we would host. It’s taking place on Monday and the preparations are a little late to start, but I’m not too worried because I believe in these people and know we’ll be just fine. The event will be themed around the five new priority areas of the WPAY and we plan to hold discussion sessions on each of them.
When it got too cold outside we moved to the UK delegation hotel and the plush club room, where coffee and couches were on offer and provided a much nicer location in which to work. After we’d done about as much as we could do then, I had a brief stop-off in my room to change clothes and headed out to a local bar for an informal meeting of NGO youth reps.
This gathering was a very smart idea, but unfortunately the venue was a little loud and crowded (typical Friday night in NYC). It was still good though: a valuable opportunity to meet some of the other young people the national youth delegates will be working with next week. Last time I heard, the UN youth programme were estimating numbers of NGO youth reps to be around the 150 mark!
I left the bar at around eight and went back to the hotel to meet Keeley. From there we spent a frustratingly long time trying to get a cab over to Greenwich Village, where one of the UK Mission’s Third Committee members was hosting a party for international colleagues. It was good to see all the diplomats putting aside their differences and socialising with each other in what appeared to be a perfectly friendly way. Thankfully it was a pleasant evening as the party, arranged as part of the UK’s presidency of the EU, was happening in the garden of this nice basement apartment.
My second day at the UN wasn’t quite as action-packed or busy as the first, but it was very important to put in the time planning our side event. Making this successful is a big priority – it’s a great opportunity to present the findings of our questionnaire on the WPAY and everything going well in the interactive sessions will surely play a big part in encouraging the UK to send more youth delegates in future years.
| September 30, 2005 | 23:00:00 |
Filed under: UNGA60 |
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First Day at the UN - Posted By: Frederick Bernas
After hastily purchasing milk and a box of cereal for breakfast and taking it back to my rather luxurious room at the Hotel Affinia 50, I met up with Keeley and Kris in the main lobby.
It was a short walk to the UK Mission, situated on the 28th floor of number one Dag Hammerskjold Plaza. From that high up we had spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline - even though it was all looking a little grey, with the weather seeming unable to decide whether it was to be rain or shine.
We had a bit of both; as we approached the main UN building for a tour of the premises the heavens started opening. Luckily we got inside before the downpour really began. Although I'd done the tourists' tour before, this one was much better: the UK Mission's Third Committee expert Tom gave us lots of extra details and we even got to go inside the Security Council chamber.
Following this, we headed back to the Mission for a brief meeting with the UK's Ambassador to the UN, Sir Emyr Jones Parry (who we'd seen making a statement in the Plenary Hall earlier). He was a fascinating man, outlining to us his aims and achievements regarding the terrible poverty situation in Africa among other things. I got the impression that, although many modern-day politicians/diplomats are good at talking the talk, here was one who wanted to take the lead in action and really work for a better world.
Our afternoon agenda consisted of an 'informal' meeting in a UN conference room where the youth resolution was being discussed and negotiated. It was a very intensive session, but thankfully did not run to its full three hour allocation.
A lot of the national representatives present were quibbling at certain aspects of wording in the 13 paragraphs and it was hugely interesting to see which countries were bringing up which points. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to speak in the meeting - the UK's presidency of the EU means any statement made by our representatives is on behalf of all 25 member states. Additionally, the fact that Portugal are managing this particular resolution means EU countries don't really contribute in the informals - their points can be raised in separate co-ordination meetings.
So, the end of day one. I didn't really know what to expect, but I was excited anyway and really happy to be in NYC again. However, what is now clearer than ever is that to manage to influence anything which happens in the UN will be very difficult. Difficult though, not impossible. I truly believe that if this year's record number of youth reps can work together as a team and be organised with our plans, we can succeed in making a significant contribution.
| September 29, 2005 | 17:37:28 |
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First Day at the UN - Posted By: Frederick Bernas
After hastily purchasing milk and a box of cereal for breakfast and taking it back to my rather luxurious room at the Hotel Affinia 50, I met up with Keeley and Kris in the main lobby.
It was a short walk to the UK Mission, situated on the 28th floor of number one Dag Hammerskjold Plaza. From that high up we had spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline - even though it was all looking a little grey, with the weather seeming unable to decide whether it was to be rain or shine.
We had a bit of both; as we approached the main UN building for a tour of the premises the heavens started opening. Luckily we got inside before the downpour really began. Although I'd done the tourists' tour before, this one was much better: the UK Mission's Third Committee expert Tom gave us lots of extra details and we even got to go inside the Security Council chamber.
Following this, we headed back to the Mission for a brief meeting with the UK's Ambassador to the UN, Sir Emyr Jones Parry (who we'd seen making a statement in the Plenary Hall earlier). He was a fascinating man, outlining to us his aims and achievements regarding the terrible poverty situation in Africa among other things. I got the impression that, although many modern-day politicians/diplomats are good at talking the talk, here was one who wanted to take the lead in action and really work for a better world.
Our afternoon agenda consisted of an 'informal' meeting in a UN conference room where the youth resolution was being discussed and negotiated. It was a very intensive session, but thankfully did not run to its full three hour allocation.
A lot of the national representatives present were quibbling at certain aspects of wording in the 13 paragraphs and it was hugely interesting to see which countries were bringing up which points. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to speak in the meeting - the UK's presidency of the EU means any statement made by our representatives is on behalf of all 25 member states. Additionally, the fact that Portugal are managing this particular resolution means EU countries don't really contribute in the informals - their points can be raised in separate co-ordination meetings.
So, the end of day one. I didn't really know what to expect, but I was excited anyway and really happy to be in NYC again. However, what is now clearer than ever is that to manage to influence anything which happens in the UN will be very difficult. Difficult though, not impossible. I truly believe that if this year's record number of youth reps can work together as a team and be organised with our plans, we can succeed in making a significant contribution.
The three UK Youth Delegates to the UNGA60 have a group blog: check out http://www.tigblog.org/group/ukyouthreps
| September 29, 2005 | 17:30:00 |
Filed under: UNGA60 |
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