As part of my role as QMSU’s Be a Champion 2012 ambassador, I attended the 7th UNESCO Youth Forum (YF) in Paris from October 17th to 20th.
UNESCO is the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation and is committed to taking into account the opinion of the world’s youth in its international policies and projects. Two hundred and forty five youth delegates from 193 Member States and over 250 civil society observers descended upon the prominent UNESCO building, overlooked by the Eiffel Tower, to get their voices heard. I was asked to go by the NUS Be a Champion (BAC) project which engages university students with the Olympics and I attended as a forum observer and youth representative of London 2012 Olympics to network and engage with young delegates from the many countries present and international charities and NGOs also attending as observers, alongside BAC representative from Kingston University, Richard Davill.
The forum this year was especially important following a regulation passed at the 6th YF that UNESCO had to make the official youth report, created by the youth delegates at the forum, an agenda point at their upcoming Annual General Meeting, which means the report will be discussed by some of the prominent UNESCO leaders. This commitment tied in with their recognition of the International Year of the Youth – August 2010-2011 (www.social.un.org/youthyear/). With this in mind the youth present were determined to be heard. Delegates told stories of the issues prevalent in their countries informatively and with conviction, telling all observers: “Youth want to be heard – we are not the future, we are the present.”
I delivered a speech to the 400+ conference room about how London 2012 can engage with international youth through its sporting legacy and projects such as Get Set Go Global (www.london2012.com/schoolsaroundtheworld) and had the opportunity to attend lecture sessions delivered by some prominent international figures, such as UNESCO Director-General Ms Irina Bokova, Academy Award winner and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador American actor Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland), 28year-old Miguel Sanchez, Director General Of the Mexican Youth Institute (IMJUVE) and Nizan Guanaes, President of Brazil’s Grupo ABC. Meeting with many inspiring young international activists, from 24-year old Kenyan Felogene Anumo who campaigns on girls’ schools attendance and the different issues affecting young Kenyan girls in education to Cesare Lopez, Columbian musical advocate on non-violence who demonstrated his ‘Gun-tar’: an AK47 transformed into a guitar which he will be presenting to the Ghandi museum in India next week, made me more aware of the important campaigns being led by young people around the world.
With the forum now closed and delegates returned to their countries, it is what happens next that is most important. How the delegates and observers use the networking and information they gained at the Youth Forum to change situations in their own countries, and to harness international relations, will be the real test for the youth present. I will be feeding my own networking and experiences at the forum into QMSU’s Olympics-inspired project Aspire.
For more information on Be a Champion visit: http://london2012.nus.org.uk/ or for QMSU Aspire email: aspire@qmsu.org
For more info on the UNESCO youth forum visit: www.unesco.org/en/youth or if you’re interested in taking on UN-led international volunteering visit: www.unv.org/en
Ruth Faulkner – QMSU Aspire Project Leader