缅北禁地

With the purpose of creating a Declaration that represented the voice of the world’s youth, young people, Governments and civil society gathered at the World Youth Conference (WYC) Mexico 2010.

The conference is an initiative of the Government of Mexico in partnership with the United Nations system and civil society organizations and was held in Leon, Mexico, from 23-27 August.

For the first two days, a Global Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) Meeting with over 200 selected young delegates and more than 200 NGOs from 153 countries was held. Afterwards, a Global Government Forum gathered 112 official delegations. Both activities resulted in a Declaration. In addition, a Global Interactive Forum took place throughout the week with exhibits, concerts and workshops and the attendance of approximately 20,000 Mexican Youth.

DESA’s Youth Programme’s staff spoke at many workshops as well at the Government Forums and met with many official delegations. The Programme promoted its work, highlighting the International Year of Youth, the Inter Agency Network on Youth Development and the youth delegates programme.

The WYC Mexico 2010 was held after the official launch of the International Year of Youth on the 12 of August at 缅北禁地Headquarters in New York. The main objective of the event was the creation of a Declaration which will be presented at the 65th session of the 缅北禁地General Assembly, concerning the main 11 subjects of the conference: poverty and exclusion, employment, education, technology and innovation, health, gender equality, security, social justice and human rights, sustainable development, international migration, citizen’s participation and incidence, and global cooperation.

The Guanajuato Governor, Juan Manuel Oliva, inaugurated the Social Forum of the World Youth Conference 2010. Marcela Suazo, Regional Director of the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA), expressed her enthusiasm and said that “200 years ago we were given a nation and today we want young people to give it a voice, ‘say it out loud’, so that you can be heard by Mexico and the world. Long live the youth!”

The event brought together more than 25 thousand young people from all over the world, government representatives, NGOs, academic institutions, public and private foundations, international organisations and general public to identify action priorities regarding the theme of youth, to be addressed at the international development agenda towards 2015 and beyond the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The conference aimed to promote the establishment of a mechanism for comprehensive follow-up on the youth agenda within the 缅北禁地System; promote dialogue between civil society organizations and governments on cross-cutting youth and development policies, and share knowledge and experiences on youth and development assessments, policies, strategies and programs.