Youth Forum reports
Coordinator
Hubert Schneebeli (Earth Focus)
Youth has always had to face a great challenge: to be heard. It
is not easy and youth worldwide need to find places to meet, share experiences
and build networks in order to reinforce their role in Civil Society and
international cooperation. The World Civil Society Youth Forum is such a place.
During four days, the participants learned from each other;
they made assessments of the youth position in Civil Society and usually gave concrete and realistic propositions to improve it. Each day they met and
debated with UN Organizations and NGO representatives who shared their
experience with youth and brought their vision into the discussions.
Participants discussed important topics related to three main themes:
sustainable development, human rights and peace building.
In order to capture the outcomes of the Forum, specific statements and
proposals from all 10 working groups (the same as for the main Forum) were
collected on the last day of the conference. Also, official Youth Forum
delegates integrated the working groups in the main Forum, to promote the Youth
Forum proposals.
The most important thing of all might have been the networking that took
place. The Forum provided an opportunity for young people from all over the
world and with very different backgrounds to meet, and some of them decided to
create new NGOs.
The Youth Forum had three main goals:
- to maximize the effectiveness of youth participation in the World Civil
Society Forum
- to create a space for dialogue between youth and other stakeholders of the
international scene
- to provide a networking opportunity
As you will be able to read in the following reports, these
goals were reached thanks to the support of the Organizing Committee. The participants unanimously decided to
support another edition of the Youth Forum. I just
want to emphasise that this first World Civil Society Youth Forum was organized
by volunteers in a very short period of time, and with a limited budget.
I would like to thank the whole Organizing Committee for the
amount of time and work that each member put into this Forum. I would also like
to thank the main Forum Organizing Committee and its President for their
constant help and support.
The participants made this Forum a space for respect, a space
for peace, a space for hope and a space for youth; let's keep trusting them.
Youth Forum reports
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