PrepCom I: Statement by Youth

Address from Youth as a Major Group
Multi-Stakeholder Segment of PrepCom1
United Nations, New York, April 30th, 2001

Read by Ms. Julie Larsen

Mr. Chairperson, thank you for this opportunity to speak. First, let me begin by specifying that we, the youth, speak to you today on behalf of a newly created inter-governmental Ministry. This is the Ministry of Holism, a forever absent, cross-sectoral government department that is essential to sustainable development.

As Ministers of Holism, it is necessary to begin by pointing out how few youth there are here. When we sit down for our discussions, it is unfortunate that more than half our table is missing. We, who have written this speech, recognize that we are not at all representative of global youth, but have made an effort to include a range of perspectives.

This is our first call. We need your support so that we can be representative at all the upcoming PrepComs. A youth caucus consisting only of young people from Europe and North America cannot represent African, Asian and South American youth. Let us make our first concrete proposition. Each industrialized, or as we prefer to call them, over-developed country, should pay for the participation of one Southern youth or World Summit preparatory conferences.

True to our energetic reputation, youth are well along in their preparations for the World Summit.[ insertion of ad lib comment to Mr. N. Desai about appreciation for website] Both UNEP’s youth council and Habitat youth have begun their building of networks. In many countries, national youth projects towards the World Summit are well underway. The meetings of the Youth Caucus at CDS9 have been enriched with presentations of these national initiatives. In Canada, for example, a Youth Agenda 2002 is underway and a twenty-member Youth Summit Team has begun drafting actions on local to international levels and is preparing to undertake a youth review of Agenda 21. The youth at the International Student Festival in Trodheim, Norway, has put forth an excellent proposal to place greater emphasis on education and its role in realising the commitments in Agenda 21 and beyond. These youth initiatives are ready to be called upon by their governments to be involved in their national preparations.

There are several planned international youth meetings dedicated to World Summit preparations. At the end of next month, 250 youth from nearly 100 countries will be gathering in Sweden for the first youth event concentrating specifically on World Summit preparations. The work accomplished here will then be built upon at subsequent youth conferences, such as the ones being planned in Senegal, Kazakhstan and Denmark. The participants at these conferences will come home a great resource for your governments when you seek to involve civil society in your preparations.

When we look at Agenda 21, we see many possibilities for progressive change. However, last week we observed the discussions around issues very pertinent to the implementation of Agenda 21. It was not encouraging. The discussions that we heard were dominated by deliberations of the meaning of "considered to" versus "are encouraged to" or " are encouraged to consider". When we lack clean air to breath and clean water to drink, we will be sure to appreciate the importance of these semantic clarifications.

Given the ecological state of the planet and the obvious disparity between its peoples, the debates seem trivial. At the World Summit, youth do not wish to reopen Agenda 21, but rather focus on the removal of obstacles for its implementation. We need decisive action - not more meetings, more negotiations, or more non-binding agreements. If governments only did what they said they were going to do, they would be too busy for more negotiations.

As young Ministers of Holism, we will highlight just a few more of our concerns.

Poverty Eradication – All actions at the World Summit need to contribute to this end. To arrive at real social justice, we ask you to recognize the link between poverty, over consumption and the environment. As such, we ask you to immediately push for debt cancellation, so that developing country can utilize their resources for sustainable development and to meet an ODA commitment of 0.7% contribution of GNP.

To this end, it must be addressed that present international trade structure is exploitive. Put quite simply, we need to make it ever so clear that people and planet come before profit. For this message to be heard by the right people, youth would like to insist that Ministers of Trade and Finance partake in the World Summit and really consider the issues in partnership with other stakeholders.

Likewise, around the issue of corporate partnerships, youth are very concerned about corporate influence over the Summit. At the very least, we need a template for evaluation, as well as transparency and accountability. Youth call upon the Organizational Bureau for the World Summit to recognize a business community beyond multi-nationals, to create local partnerships, and to recall that ultimately, economies should serve communities, and communities should not serve economies.

Concerning consumption, the Western lifestyle must be on the Agenda for consideration at the Summit. It is by no means a model for developing countries because it is highly unsustainable. Remember, youth are heavily targeted as consumers, often are raised as consumers and we will be critical for a global paradigm shift.

Education is a forgotten area. It is highly problematic that young economists and engineers can still graduate from university without have learnt anything about how to integrate sustainability in their work. Don’t let our generation slip through the cracks. Sustainable development has to be integrated as a cross-sectoral approach in all types of education, as originally declared in Agenda 21.

Lastly, we call for a real review of Agenda 21. Regardless of unrealistic timelines, let each country use the World Summit to engage their people in looking at Agenda 21, how far they have come and how far we have yet to go.