The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has commenced planning and dialogue for forums and webinars that will be hosted to commemorate International Youth Day 2020, which is being observed under the theme “Youth Engagement for Global Action”.
In a Zoom meeting held last Wednesday, UNICEF also invited comments and recommendations from Youth Ambassadors from the Rights of the Child Commission (RCC).
At the forum RCC Chief Executive Officer, Amar Panday highlighted four main topics that the Commission believes should be highlighted going forward as important for the growth of youth involvement and development on major decision making platforms.
Panday explained that reformation of the education system, the implementation of imperative youth involvement, improved levels of advocacy, and the effective use of social media platforms are all topics that need to be discussed to engender a higher level of youth participation on localised, national, and global levels. This newspaper spoke to one of the participating youth ambassadors, Nareema Khan, who expressed the hope that they will be able to reach out to youths in as many ways as possible, in an effort to bring awareness to the social issues that they believe need to be urgently addressed. “We want to create a social media campaign leading up to the event to start having discussions on important social issues, and engage young people to have them share their experiences and point of views.”
Ruth Wilson, another youth ambassador for the RCC, explained that one thing she would ensure is highlighted and discussed from this point on is the freedom of speech and expression that youths are afraid to utilise, even though it is their right. “I want to see young people be unapologetically vocal about their feelings about what they want to see happen in their country. We have been given this opportunity to be heard but it only works if use our voices,” Wilson said.
According to UNICEF, “The theme of International youth day 2020, ‘Youth Engagement for Global Action’ seeks to highlight the ways in which the engagement of young people at the local, national and global levels is enriching national and multilateral institutions and processes, as well as draw lessons on how their representation and engagement in formal institutional politics can be significantly enhanced.”
UNICEF on its website went on to explain that their aim is to produce a greater level of awareness and give attention to the need to actively engage young people in decision-making at local, national, and even global institutions in an effort to achieve the goal of strengthening their capacity and relevance to achieve global goals.
International Youth Day is August 12.
