Foreign
ANTONIO Guterres, UN Secretary-General says he is fully committed to bringing young people into political decision-making.
According to him, he is interested in not just listening to their views but also acting on them.
The secretary general made the commitment on Tuesday in his remarks during the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum 2024.
The 2024 Forum has the theme, “Reinforcing the 2030 Agenda and eradicating poverty in times of multiple crises: the effective delivery of sustainable, resilient and innovative solutions.”
The Forum provides a global platform for dialogue among Member States and young leaders on solutions to challenges affecting youth wellbeing.
Guterres said the UN’s new youth office was established to advance advocacy, coordination, participation and accountability for and with young people.
He said that the UN youth strategy would be renewed to take this work to the next level.
The secretary general said he was committed to making sure young people had a strong role as the world geared up for the summit of the future in September.
This summit, according to him, is a pivotal moment to turbocharge the SDGs and reinvigorate multilateralism.
“We have already put forward a number of concrete ideas on strengthening youth engagement for member states to consider.
“These include establishing national youth consultative bodies, a global standard for meaningful youth engagement in decision making.
“We are also working to advance a global digital compact to help build a world where digital technologies support sustainable development, including education and jobs for young people.
“A world where children and young people are protected online benefits from digital technologies and have a say in the decisions shaping digital life,” he said.
The UN official said that a high level advisory body had been created to make recommendations on international governance of artificial intelligence.
According to him, this group of experts is gender balanced, includes young leaders and people from the global south and is feeding into the global digital compacts.
“We have also proposed a new agenda for peace, to renew and strengthen multilateral security frameworks and to embed young people’s participation in peace and security institutions that are funded in full.
“As we are pushing for reform of the United Nations Security Council and the fundamental overall of the international financial architecture, we count on youth engagement and leadership.”
Guterres said every generation served as caretaker of the world, noting that his generation had been careless with that responsibility but the present one gives him hope.
“The United Nations stands with youths, and together let’s deliver justice, let’s deliver solutions and let’s create a world of peace and prosperity for all,” he said. (NAN)
F.A
April 16, 2024 @ 19:53 GMT
Tags: Guterres UN Secretary General youths
