UN day two
Today started off quite cold so I instinctively grabbed my coat from the room before departing our hotel. This was a misguided presumption, however, as the weather brightened up considerably after the early morning and it became a really nice day.
We had a slightly later start, heading over to the UK Mission around nine to work on plans for the side event we’ll be holding at the UN on Tuesday. It’s on the theme of youth participation and citizenship and we’re hoping to have a set of recommendations on this at the end of the meeting, after splitting the attendees up into three groups to work on it. There will also be two guest speakers and the three of us will be making presentations on the key findings of our consultation in each WPAY cluster area.
Mine is ‘Youth in civil society: environment, leisure and participation’ and it’s pretty much my specialist area. Since we’re focussing on participation in the side event, here are some of the interesting results we had from respondents to our survey:
- 94% supported the idea of sending youth delegates to the UN
- 91% believed opportunities for youth participation in decision-making of government-supported organisations should be strengthened
- 74% thought youth participation helps strengthen commitment to and understanding of human rights and democracy
- 53% believed young people are apathetic
The issue of youth apathy is of particular interest to me and that’s what I’ve decided to focus on in my section of the side event on Tuesday. I believe that the problem has the form of a vicious circle (see the diagram above). The root of it lies in the unwillingness of politicians to engage with the youth population, mostly because many of us are under the age of 18 – our views don’t matter in the political arena because there’s nothing to gain from our support. This means we aren’t interested in voting and leads to low turnout figures of just over a third in the 18-24 age group (35% and 37% in the last two general elections). The whole circular process then starts again after elections because the politicians don’t see any point in making efforts with people who probably won’t vote in large enough numbers to make a difference the next time round.
It will be very interesting to see how people from different countries (hopefully) attending the side event will react to the findings and I’m also looking forward to hearing about apathy situations from other parts of the world. Judging by people I’ve discussed it with so far, the UK isn’t the only place facing this widespread disengagement and disillusionment of youth with democracy, political processes and society in general.
Anyway, after working on this for an hour or so, the three of us headed over to around 40th street to sit in on the EU co-ordination meeting. This was very interesting; as I explained previously, European Union countries usually withhold from speaking in the informal negotiations, waiting until these separate opportunities to voice their opinions on the youth resolution. So this was basically a continuation of the previous day, with the lady from Portugal’s Mission, which is in charge of the drafting process, inviting feedback on the latest version of the resolution and noting down potential changes. The other main issue which sufficed in this meeting was on human rights and whether or not provisions for underage young people engaging in sexual intercourse should be primarily targeted at females – the other option being to make it non-gender specific. A few states were strongly advocating one side or another and the debate lasted quite a while, with the Chair from the UK having to continuously suggest possible compromises.
After this we had lunch and returned to the Mission to finalise plans for the side event. Once this was done, I worked on some possible text I’d like to see in the youth resolution on the subject of youth-led development. Young people have such a crucial role to play in the Millennium Development Goals and it’s just not recognised to the extent it should be. People don’t realise that these eight ambitious targets simply cannot be reached without the full involvement of youth and that’s what I’ll be trying to get into the resolution.
At around 2.30 we went over to the UN building and met up with a couple of other youth delegates in the Vienna Café, before going outside to a pre-arranged gathering point at 3pm and meeting a few more. It was great to see the people I’d first met in Sweden again – they’re a really committed group and what’s even more exciting is that this year there will be many more! Numbers of youth delegates have smashed previous records, with around 50 listed on the UN youth programme website last time I checked.
Next week is going to be absolutely fantastic with all these young people around, although one thing I’ve been pleasantly surprised at in the UN is the low number of elderly people. Linking back to the apathy theme, I think one of the main reasons why young people are turned off politics is the impression they have of it being old men with grey hair sitting in meetings all day. This definitely isn’t the case at the UN and I’m very happy about that.
The group went and sat in a pleasant outdoor café near the UN and we discussed plans for another side event, which it was decided in Sweden that we would host. It’s taking place on Monday and the preparations are a little late to start, but I’m not too worried because I believe in these people and know we’ll be just fine. The event will be themed around the five new priority areas of the WPAY and we plan to hold discussion sessions on each of them.
When it got too cold outside we moved to the UK delegation hotel and the plush club room, where coffee and couches were on offer and provided a much nicer location in which to work. After we’d done about as much as we could do then, I had a brief stop-off in my room to change clothes and headed out to a local bar for an informal meeting of NGO youth reps.
This gathering was a very smart idea, but unfortunately the venue was a little loud and crowded (typical Friday night in NYC). It was still good though: a valuable opportunity to meet some of the other young people the national youth delegates will be working with next week. Last time I heard, the UN youth programme were estimating numbers of NGO youth reps to be around the 150 mark!
I left the bar at around eight and went back to the hotel to meet Keeley. From there we spent a frustratingly long time trying to get a cab over to Greenwich Village, where one of the UK Mission’s Third Committee members was hosting a party for international colleagues. It was good to see all the diplomats putting aside their differences and socialising with each other in what appeared to be a perfectly friendly way. Thankfully it was a pleasant evening as the party, arranged as part of the UK’s presidency of the EU, was happening in the garden of this nice basement apartment.
My second day at the UN wasn’t quite as action-packed or busy as the first, but it was very important to put in the time planning our side event. Making this successful is a big priority – it’s a great opportunity to present the findings of our questionnaire on the WPAY and everything going well in the interactive sessions will surely play a big part in encouraging the UK to send more youth delegates in future years.
We had a slightly later start, heading over to the UK Mission around nine to work on plans for the side event we’ll be holding at the UN on Tuesday. It’s on the theme of youth participation and citizenship and we’re hoping to have a set of recommendations on this at the end of the meeting, after splitting the attendees up into three groups to work on it. There will also be two guest speakers and the three of us will be making presentations on the key findings of our consultation in each WPAY cluster area.
Mine is ‘Youth in civil society: environment, leisure and participation’ and it’s pretty much my specialist area. Since we’re focussing on participation in the side event, here are some of the interesting results we had from respondents to our survey:
- 94% supported the idea of sending youth delegates to the UN
- 91% believed opportunities for youth participation in decision-making of government-supported organisations should be strengthened
- 74% thought youth participation helps strengthen commitment to and understanding of human rights and democracy
- 53% believed young people are apathetic
The issue of youth apathy is of particular interest to me and that’s what I’ve decided to focus on in my section of the side event on Tuesday. I believe that the problem has the form of a vicious circle (see the diagram above). The root of it lies in the unwillingness of politicians to engage with the youth population, mostly because many of us are under the age of 18 – our views don’t matter in the political arena because there’s nothing to gain from our support. This means we aren’t interested in voting and leads to low turnout figures of just over a third in the 18-24 age group (35% and 37% in the last two general elections). The whole circular process then starts again after elections because the politicians don’t see any point in making efforts with people who probably won’t vote in large enough numbers to make a difference the next time round.
It will be very interesting to see how people from different countries (hopefully) attending the side event will react to the findings and I’m also looking forward to hearing about apathy situations from other parts of the world. Judging by people I’ve discussed it with so far, the UK isn’t the only place facing this widespread disengagement and disillusionment of youth with democracy, political processes and society in general.
Anyway, after working on this for an hour or so, the three of us headed over to around 40th street to sit in on the EU co-ordination meeting. This was very interesting; as I explained previously, European Union countries usually withhold from speaking in the informal negotiations, waiting until these separate opportunities to voice their opinions on the youth resolution. So this was basically a continuation of the previous day, with the lady from Portugal’s Mission, which is in charge of the drafting process, inviting feedback on the latest version of the resolution and noting down potential changes. The other main issue which sufficed in this meeting was on human rights and whether or not provisions for underage young people engaging in sexual intercourse should be primarily targeted at females – the other option being to make it non-gender specific. A few states were strongly advocating one side or another and the debate lasted quite a while, with the Chair from the UK having to continuously suggest possible compromises.
After this we had lunch and returned to the Mission to finalise plans for the side event. Once this was done, I worked on some possible text I’d like to see in the youth resolution on the subject of youth-led development. Young people have such a crucial role to play in the Millennium Development Goals and it’s just not recognised to the extent it should be. People don’t realise that these eight ambitious targets simply cannot be reached without the full involvement of youth and that’s what I’ll be trying to get into the resolution.
At around 2.30 we went over to the UN building and met up with a couple of other youth delegates in the Vienna Café, before going outside to a pre-arranged gathering point at 3pm and meeting a few more. It was great to see the people I’d first met in Sweden again – they’re a really committed group and what’s even more exciting is that this year there will be many more! Numbers of youth delegates have smashed previous records, with around 50 listed on the UN youth programme website last time I checked.
Next week is going to be absolutely fantastic with all these young people around, although one thing I’ve been pleasantly surprised at in the UN is the low number of elderly people. Linking back to the apathy theme, I think one of the main reasons why young people are turned off politics is the impression they have of it being old men with grey hair sitting in meetings all day. This definitely isn’t the case at the UN and I’m very happy about that.
The group went and sat in a pleasant outdoor café near the UN and we discussed plans for another side event, which it was decided in Sweden that we would host. It’s taking place on Monday and the preparations are a little late to start, but I’m not too worried because I believe in these people and know we’ll be just fine. The event will be themed around the five new priority areas of the WPAY and we plan to hold discussion sessions on each of them.
When it got too cold outside we moved to the UK delegation hotel and the plush club room, where coffee and couches were on offer and provided a much nicer location in which to work. After we’d done about as much as we could do then, I had a brief stop-off in my room to change clothes and headed out to a local bar for an informal meeting of NGO youth reps.
This gathering was a very smart idea, but unfortunately the venue was a little loud and crowded (typical Friday night in NYC). It was still good though: a valuable opportunity to meet some of the other young people the national youth delegates will be working with next week. Last time I heard, the UN youth programme were estimating numbers of NGO youth reps to be around the 150 mark!
I left the bar at around eight and went back to the hotel to meet Keeley. From there we spent a frustratingly long time trying to get a cab over to Greenwich Village, where one of the UK Mission’s Third Committee members was hosting a party for international colleagues. It was good to see all the diplomats putting aside their differences and socialising with each other in what appeared to be a perfectly friendly way. Thankfully it was a pleasant evening as the party, arranged as part of the UK’s presidency of the EU, was happening in the garden of this nice basement apartment.
My second day at the UN wasn’t quite as action-packed or busy as the first, but it was very important to put in the time planning our side event. Making this successful is a big priority – it’s a great opportunity to present the findings of our questionnaire on the WPAY and everything going well in the interactive sessions will surely play a big part in encouraging the UK to send more youth delegates in future years.
posted by Frederick at 03:00
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