Rio+20 Daily Blog - Day 07

June 18, Youth 21, As we know youth participation in the UN process has become crucial, we have to keep in mind we are not the leaders of tommorrow, we are the leaders of today. So from now itself we have to get engage with the decision making process, we have to go along with our governments, not in front or not in behind. Youth 21, is a global youth blueprint agenda on youth participation at the Highest UN level, a full day side event took place in Ipenema organized by Government of Sri Lanka, Brazil, Mexico and Norway, in parallel to Rio+20 main side event. The entire side event was divided in to two blocks. youth panel in the morning hours and high level panel in the afternoon represented by Ministers and deputy ministers. After the morning panel the participants we divided in to six groups to design the Model of the permanent UN youth forum as we want, few of the groups worked on Structure of the Forum, how to promote this permanent forum and get as much as member states/campaigning, how to address global issues, accountability, diversity and inclusion, Global Participation etc. Severn Suzuki who silence the world in Earth Summit 1992 made the opening remarks of the high level panel in the afternoon, she reflected the impact of her speech which was delivered 20 years ago. She emphasized on the "Inter-generational crime and Inter-generational Love", where millions of people are effected by climatic changes,which was induced by our previous generation. A Brazilian representative mentioned that "Youth is not the future, youth is the present. Therefore youth engagement is necessary in decision making process" A Norwegian government representative said the Youth role is necessary on pushing the negotiators for a smart deal. If the states are not going to take youth issues a series, the Youth will take serious about the governments. He explained with best example with revolution on Egypt. Hon. Deputy Minister of Youth Affairs and Skills Development highlighted how youth can lobby with their governments and how Sri Lankan government can a role model and he focused more on best practices, youth centered policy making process. UNHABITAT executive deputy director share that UN SG has created an strategy to empower youth in his 5 years action plan."If we are going to develop the global Sustainable Development agenda then youth has to be in the driver seat, because number of youth will be more than the present and this young generation will be the member state representatives and the negotiators in the future" More Info http://www.globalyouthdesk.org/Youth21/Youth21_Home/Youth21_Article.aspx?mid=97The Youth 21 Declaration http://www.youth-21.org/