Young Gather to Show Their Power

By A. D. McKenzie Reprint | | Print |

PARIS, Oct 17 2011 (IPS) - With young people spearheading the revolutionary movements in the Middle East and other regions, the seventh Youth Forum taking place here this week has particular relevance, participants say.

A banner announces the youth forum in Paris. Credit: A.D.McKenzie/IPS.

Organised by the United Nations’ cultural agency, UNESCO, the forum has brought together delegates from more than 190 countries, including activists from the ‘Arab Spring’ and protest movements in southern Europe. They say they want world leaders to take their opinions seriously.

“Recent happenings all over the world show that if you want to have peace in your country, you should listen to the youth,” said 27-year-old Enilolobo Solomon, a London-based Nigerian volunteer at the forum.

“I travelled down from London just to be part of this. We’re all going to contribute so that we can end up with rich ideas,” he told IPS. “I hope that countries of the world will adopt our resolutions so that things can get better.”

Solomon, who has participated in the Commonwealth Youth Parliament, said he heard about the Paris event on Facebook and quickly applied to be a volunteer because he thinks the Youth Forum is a “brilliant idea” and what “everyone should be doing.”

Another delegate told IPS that the forum was important for the chance to work together. “Usually we’re so alone that we don’t know what we can do,” said Sica Acapo, a 21-year-old French university student. “But getting together is definitely an inspiration to get moving for change. We want our voices to be heard.”

Focusing on the theme of ‘how youth drive change’, the forum’s organisers have enlisted the help of some high-profile individuals to boost the message of “peace making”.

Monday saw the American actor and campaigner Forest Whitaker leading a workshop on conflict resolution and reconciliation, and the contributions young people can make in this area.

This was billed as a “capacity-building pre-day” for delegates, before the formal opening of the forum on Tuesday by Egyptian blogger and protestor Gigi Ibrahim, who is seen as “one of the leaders” of Tahrir Square.

“We can be brave enough to change the paradigm,” said Whitaker, who was named UNESCO goodwill ambassador last June. “We can reshape the world.”

The actor, who has always portrayed unusual characters, is perhaps best known for his roles as jazz musician Charlie Parker in ‘Bird’ and as the unhinged Ugandan leader Idi Amin in ‘The Last King of Scotland’, for which he received an Academy Award in 2006.

But he also works on projects that reflect his humanitarian concerns. He has produced a poignant film about Ugandan child soldiers as well as a documentary about the need to achieve peace and understanding in strife-torn communities.

With Aldo Civico, an anthropologist and conflict resolution expert at Rutgers University in the United States, Whitaker has founded the International Institute for Peace, whose mission is to “foster a global culture and practice of peace by strengthening the human potential for peace through dialogue and negotiation.”

According to UNESCO’s director-general Irina Bokova, Whitaker “brings compassion and commitment and feeling to what he does in this world of turmoil.” The agency said he would work with UNESCO to “support or develop initiatives that empower youth and exclude them from cycles of violence.”

Dressed in a casual suit and sneakers, Whitaker told youth delegates Monday that he was “transformed” by being in their presence. He told IPS that he wants to do as much as he can to highlight the particular concerns of young people.

These concerns include violence, unemployment and access to education. A survey by the World Health Organisation indicates that about 565 young people aged 10-29 die every day through interpersonal violence. With unrest sweeping certain regions, and the brutal crackdown in some countries, that figure could become much higher.

Young people also comprise a major part of those living in poverty, with almost 209 million surviving on less than a dollar a day, and 515 million living on less than two dollars a day, according to UN figures.

The International Labour Organisation, meanwhile, says that globally the unemployment rate among young people is usually three times higher than that of adults, with youth unemployment rising from 11.9 percent to 13 percent from 2007 to 2009, an increase of 7.8 million.

Regarding education, UNESCO says that 98 percent of children with disabilities in developing countries do not attend school and 99 percent of girls with disabilities are illiterate. The number of children out of school globally has been put at some 67 million.

Despite this, young people overall are become more learned, as the literacy rate of those aged 15 to 24 rose from 83 to 89 per cent between 1990 and 2009, the agency says. It credits the rise to an increase in non-formal education initiatives such as mobile schools and other innovative projects.

Expansion of such schemes will be on the agenda this week. UNESCO will sign a partnership Tuesday with the International Youth Foundation, focusing on 180 youth-led projects in Africa. The agency says the aim is to develop skills and provide access to professional networks, coaching and mentoring, financial resources and advocacy opportunities. On Thursday, the organisation will also sign up with TAFISA (Association for International Sport for All), and the focus here will be on building leadership skills through the Volunteer Initiative for Peace through Sport (VIPS), based at the African Sport for All Academy in Tanzania.

This week as well, Whitaker will launch an online hub “dedicated to mobilising youth to bring peace and understanding to the world”, while other well-known speakers at the forum will include Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho and the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes.

The delegates themselves will draw up a resolution to present to world leaders during UNESCO’s general conference, taking place Oct. 25-Nov. 10.