Rio de Janeiro--While youth engagement and participation is one of United Nations Alliance of Civilization's four main priority areas, the youth recommendations to be announced at the Opening Plenary of the 3rd annual United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) Forum were omitted from the main Forum program. The Rio Forum is currently being held from Friday, May 28th through Saturday, May 29th 2010 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
The UNAOC was established in 2005, at the initiative of the Governments of Spain and Turkey, under the auspices of the United Nations. A high-level Group of Experts was formed by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to explore the roots of polarization between societies and cultures today, and to recommend a practical program of action to address this issue. In order to fulfill this mandate, the UNAOC works primarily in four areas: youth, media, education and migration.
By way of this statement, the 140+ youth delegation attending the Rio Forum wish to express their extreme disappointment at the omission of the recommendations. They compiled these recommendations as a result of consultations mandated by the UNAOC Youth Forum, which took place on Thursday May 27, 2010.
This omission is even more poignant because the majority of high-level speakers who made comments at the forum stressed the importance of youth participation on the global stage. By blatantly ignoring the youth recommendations, they have elucidated their ambivalence to issues relevant to youth. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said, "We need to learn from youth." How will policy makers learn from us if they refuse to listen to our voices?
Press Contacts
Chuk Obasi (USA)
Email: chuk.obasi@yahoo.com
Nadia Zaffar (Pakistan)
Email: nadia.zaffar@gmail.com
Vahid Vahdat (Brasil)
E-mail: vahidd@gmail.com
Maja Warnstam (Sweden)
Email: majawarnstam@gmail.com
** This article was written in collaboration with other UNAOC youth leaders.