What’s relevant to you ?
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This week the buzz is all about the World Conference on Youth 2014 happening in Colombo, with the participation of over 1500 young people, government representatives and decision makers from around the world meeting to draft the Colombo Declaration, which will be presented at the 69th UN General Assembly later this year. We asked our readers to vote on what they felt were the key themes to be taken up at the conference; here’s what they think is relevant to the world as we know it today and the young people in it.
Chantal Hatch (Empowering marginalized youth)-“Every young person has some form of talent within them and they deserve a platform to express themselves and show the world what they’re capable of.”
Sulaiman Rameez-“I see a lot of youth focused on the wrong causes, primarily due to them not understanding the true opportunities available to them.”
Jithen Silva (Gender Equality)-“Well, we can’t talk about inclusive youth participation at all levels if half of them are side-lined, and empowering marginalized youth is an important issue as well, and I would support it wholeheartedly if not for the prevailing sexism in the country. If we’re going to start reform, we should start at the grass roots- it’s not compulsory, it’s just the humane thing to do”
Grace Wickremasinghe (Gender equality)-“There’s so much talk about stereotypes and discrimination but not much is done. Our generation can change these attitudes.” Manoj Thogesan (Good governance)-“If we begin with good governance we can start addressing other issues as well”
Kaminda De Silva (Good Governance)- “Young people can write and spread the news to educate people as sharing on social media is one thing we mostly do and get involved in correct politics”
Ruvi Balasuriya (Inclusive youth participation at all levels)-“I feel like our age sometimes stands in the way of communicating to the world on how we feel about things. We’re going to be the ones dealing with decisions made today, so we should have a say in that decision making process.”