Youth scold presidents, prime ministers and other world leaders at international conference

Intersections joined more than 2,000 political and corporate leaders, civil society activists, youth, journalists, foundations, international organizations, and religious leaders at the Bridging Cultures Building Peace United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) Forum, May 26-29 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. The conference focused on addressing the complex challenges diverse societies face in today’s world.

While many world leaders participated—including the presidents of Argentina, Brazil and Portugal, the prime ministers of Turkey and Spain, and the UN secretary general ––it was perhaps a statement released by the over 140 youth attending, that attracted the most attention. In the statement, the youth delegates expressed “extreme disappointment” towards the UNAOC for ignoring the youth recommendations during the opening plenary session.

The forum opened May 25 and 26 with a youth walk and conference, followed by a mandatory consultation session where youth prepared recommendations for the forum –– recommendations that were “blatantly” ignored.

“While youth engagement and participation is one of United Nations Alliance of Civilization’s four main priority areas, the youth recommendations to be announced at the Opening Plenary … were omitted from the main forum program,” the statement read. “This omission is even more poignant because the majority of high-level speakers who made comments at the forum stressed the importance of youth participation on the global stage. By blatantly ignoring the youth recommendations, they have elucidated their ambivalence to issues relevant to youth.”

The statement also questioned the sincerity of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s comment, “We need to learn from youth” by asking how policy makers can “learn from us if they refuse to listen to our voices.”

Executive Director Robert Chase, and Project Managers Sara Reef and C. Eduardo Vargas represented Intersections at the forum.

To read the full press release, visit Intersections’ Sara Reef’s recent Huffington Post submission.