Who represents the Youth Voice at the UN conference on Sustainability?
Posted on | January 27, 2012 by Timothy Herrmann |
Your guess is a good as ours at this point.
Yesterday, during the morning session of the informal consultations at the UN Conference for Sustainability (better known as Rio +20), a young man spoke on behalf of all youth and children of the world. His speech can be found here: http://meetingwords.com/y29oOM6UJn
He did not compose the speech alone but with the help of various youth “stakeholders” who form a part of the “United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Major Group for Children and Youth” and who “are the official civil society young peoples constituency for Rio+20.” And that is all we know. Even at their official website, under constituency, it is impossible to tell what “youth” work for them and what groups support their efforts.
However, it is not hard to see what they stand for. Here is one quote that we pulled from their speech and that we believe not ALL youth would agree with:
“We recognize the central importance of population growth to sustainable development. Having previously emphasized sexual and reproductive rights of women and young people, we specifically call for nationally funded family planning programs and resources.”
What do you think?
