In Retrospect of the World Conference on Youth….
It is quite hard to imagine that one year has passed by, since the
World Conference on Youth 2014. Last year, this time of the day, I was sitting
a room full of government representatives, fighting tooth and nail to get young
peoples’ voices recognized in the Colombo Declaration on Youth (CDY), the
outcome document of the WCY. That room was filled with tension. Governments
trying to scratch each other’s back, facilitators of thematic groups going in
and out-one after one-briefing me and Lloyd (my co-negotiator) about the latest
developments in their thematic groups, young people protesting outside against
Boko Haram, and many more things happening.. all at the same time…
In retrospect of the 1st anniversary of WCY, I saw
a lot of posts, tweets, comments being circulated via social media and that
intrigued me to write this post. The comments were of two types. While some
participants cherished the friendships they made, the good times they had
another cohort was questioning and complaining about the outcome or the follow
up of the conference. I tried to ask myself the same question. What have we
done? Have we really done something to bring about change into young peoples’
lives or have we just wasted a huge chunk of money for young people to have a
good time?
What was the aim of WCY?
As the UN-NGLS very correctly recognized in their post-WCY
evaluation blog “The event worked at creating an inclusive participation
platform that enabled young people to review the progress on the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) and facilitating a process that increases awareness on
and implementation of the World Programme for Action on Youth (WPAY) as many
youth remain marginalized with limited access to essential resources or
opportunities, and are often overlooked in national development agendas”.
Why did Sri Lanka decide to host the WCY?
From what I have heard, a Sri Lankan delegation, comprised of then
Youth Minister and the former Chairman of the youth council participated at the
World Conference on Youth 2010, Held in Mexico. There they witnessed the
exclusion of youth from the decision making processes of the conference and
policy processes and decided to host a more participatory, inclusive youth
platform back at home. The ICMYO; a network of largest youth led organisations also
held its annual meeting the following year in New York and Sri Lanka supported
their youth intervention during the High Level Meeting on Youth. The plan to
host a youth led process was further strengthened there.
That is just one side of the coin. Sri Lanka was in the bad books
of many United Nations organs and member states due to our unwise
foreign policy decisions, especially around the Human Rights Council. The
government thought that hosting a “UN mandated” youth conference in Sri Lanka
would help minimize the negative perception Sri Lanka had, during that time in
the United Nations. It was also a bonus that youth development in the UN is
always discussed and negotiated in the 3rd Committee, which is also responsible
for all Social Development related matters including human rights.
Did we succeed?
I will try to evaluate the success or failure of the WCY in 3
different lenses.
First, through the organization, methodology and logistics
arrangements of the conference. It is highly remarkable that the government
decided to appoint a youth committee comprised of 10 Sri Lankan and 10
International youth activists; which was called an International Youth Task
Force (See the profiles of the IYTF here http://wcy2014.com/task-force.php); to set the direction of the entire conference. I am proud and
glad that I was able to be a part of that amazing group not merely because of
the experience and exposure it provided me throughout an entire year of working
with ministers, youth-unfriendly bureaucrats, High level officials of the UN,
the UN country team, NGOs and foreign governments, but mainly because of the
amazing people of high caliber, enormous potential and great work ethic that I
got to work with throughout my IYTF journey.
Together we planned a comprehensive agenda, a selection process,
themes and foundations and set the policy directions of the conference. We
tried our best to negotiate, argue and sometimes fight with the government in
order to provide a conducive environment for the youth participants to freely
and equally participate in their full capacity. This process of young people’s
discussions directly being taken into account at the conference negotiations,
was something that many of us have never seen before. And the selection process
of the international delegates were done by the 20 of us and I could guarantee
that we did a very transparent and fair job to everyone who applied, bearing in
mind the regional, gender balance and providing equal opportunities to
marginalized young people.
However I cannot comment on the selection of national delegates
and logistical arrangements for the participants i.e. hosting the opening
ceremony in Hambantota, since it was out of the mandate of the IYTF. Nevertheless
we tried our best till the final seconds of the conference to change certain
things, such as the mismanagement of political process and attempts for
political exploitation to gain local political spotlight. Some of our attempts succeeded
and unfortunately some did not.
Secondly, the outcome document. Was it the best outcome document
ever? Well it was not the worst. I personally do not think it was bad either.
In the words of my colleague Lloyd, who was also the Co-chair of IYTF “whilst
those of you who look for words and count them up may be disappointed, those of
you who step back and see the whole document for what it is will be impressed”.
Majority of the youth and youth lead organizations considered and still
consider the CDY, a forward progressive document. And as the first of its kind where youth representation was not the minority, the outcome document was
indeed an achievement.
Especially in terms of Gender Equality and Health, the declaration
uses bold and progressive language on young people’s sexual and reproductive
health and rights by explicitly calling on governments for:
- Universal access
to sexual and reproductive health services and information, with the
involvement of youth, regardless of marital status, with a particular
focus on women, persons living with disabilities and marginalized groups.
- A set of targets
relating to young women, girls and other gender identities, consistent
with existing laws, policies and practices, inter alia on ending all forms
of gender-based violence, harmful traditional practices, child, early and
coerced marriages and providing universal access to health including
sexual and reproductive health and rights in accordance with International
Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in the post-2015
development agenda.”
- Comprehensive sex education based on full and accurate information for all adolescents and youth.
- Taking note of
the fifth assessment reports of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) and its findings that indicate the urgent need to reduce
absolute levels of carbon emissions to address climate change impacts.
- Call on Member
States to further explore the proposed High Commissioner for Future
Generations as well as other relevant mechanisms on the topic as outlined
in the report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations entitled
„Intergenerational Solidarity and the need for Future Generations‟
- Support the
Chair’s summary of the 2013 Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction
calling for a youth and children’s forum (Which actually happened in March
2015!)
Youth Participation and Rights:
- Call on the
Secretary-General of the United Nations to establish a permanent forum on
youth, for youth and governments to facilitate a sustained dialogue
including on the Post-2015 Development Agenda
- Draw
the attention of the United Nations system, the Secretary-General of the
United Nations and the Member States to the call by young people and youth
organizations to launch a participatory, inclusive and transparent process
among member states, youth and youth organizations, building on, inter
alia, the experience of countries that already have developed legislation,
which may lead to a Convention on Youth Rights
Taking in to account the progressive and unflinching language the
document possess, I do not think it is fair to call WCY “just a fun event”
where youth from around the world had a good time.
Third angle I will be looking at is the follow up process and/or
accomplishments. In terms of creating a platform for youth to come together and
engage in a discussion the conference was quite successful. Young people not
just shared their ideas/concerns with each other, they also debated and
discussed with their youth ministers, higher government officials, UN officials
and other stakeholders. For many youth, this was considered an excellent
opportunity since they would not get the same opportunity have a one to one
discussion with their ministers back at home.
Follow up of the CDY- Some sharp moves were made by handing over
the outcome document to the Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth and the
President of the General Assembly, who themselves were participants at the
conference and therefore holds the ownership of the outcome to some extent. The
CDY was also handed over to the Secretary General of the UN, to be considered
in his synthesis report to the UN on Post 2015 (which we later saw that he
clearly did not bother to consider).
Then the Sri Lankan government extensively lobbied for the
inclusion of the implementation of CDY in the General Assembly negotiations for
2014, but the chances were very low since the GA did not facilitate a
resolution on youth last year. However, Sri Lanka managed to pass a resolution
in the 69th session of the General Assembly of the UN, to declare 15th July as “World Youth
Skills Day” (A/Res/69/145) as called on by the CDY PP 29: Calls upon the
United Nations to support a dedicated day for skills development that would
benefit global youth
The challenge is now to get CDY recognized in the “Policies and
Programmes involving Youth” resolution of the 70th General Assembly. With the
change of government following the 8th January presidential
election, the priorities and initiatives of the Sri Lankan government have changed.
However we, the youth and the IYTF have full confidence that the new government
will try to push for a youth responsive- youth friendly polices at both
national and international level, utilizing the commitments made by
stakeholders in the CDY.
Apart from these, individual efforts have been made my governments
such as Finland, Netherland and Nigeria and UN agencies and youth activists and
youth groups around the world to incorporate CDY recommendations in their local
policies.
It is naïve to think that change will happen
overnight or by the adoption of a declaration. If it is so, the world would be a much better place with the number of international and national agreements the world have abide to. Change is a process. It needs time, experience, discussion and debate. WCY, just as any
other conference, was a platform for advocacy. It was an opportunity to build
networks, movements, learn best practices, debate, negotiate and come to a
conclusion what the global youth movement as a united force should lobby for in
the years to come. WCY gave equal ownership to youth and governments in its
outcome. It is not only the responsibility of governments to take if forward,
but also the duty of the youth who participated at the conference to use the
CDY as an advocacy tool to lobby for better national policies and programmes in
their own countries. All 2500 people who were a part of WCY has a
responsibility to point a finger at their governments, the UN and hold them accountable
for not delivering the commitments they made.
This applies to every outcome document of every conference that
was held since the First League of Nations World Youth Congress in Geneva in
1936. This applies to every outcome document that went unnoticed that went
un-implemented. This applies to the World Programme of Action on Youth, which
is the prime youth policy of the UN that went unnoticed for 20 years.
Because in reality; no government, no international organization
is genuinely interested in advancing the lives of young people of the world.
They see young people as passive beneficiaries or recipients that could be
exploited for political gains. It is up to us, the young people, to change the
game. Every revolution starts with young people. Just like the young people in
Sri Lanka remarkably contributed towards change during the course of the last
presidential election, like youth everywhere else in the middle east, Africa
and Latin America stand up to restore democracy and dignity for all, change IS
possible.
I see two ways to bring that change into life:
1.
We stand up and speak up
for our rights and hold our policy makers accountable
and/or
2.
We become policy makers, we
become ministers, we become the system and we become the change.
