UNESCO Youth Forum 2011 in Paris, Oct 2011

Denisa from Slovakia participated in the 7th UNESCO Youth Forum in Paris. Read here about her experience:

7th UNESCO Youth Forum was held on 16-20th of October 2011 in Paris, France organised by UNESCO. Young delegates from all over the world gathered to make their voice heard and talk about the issues related to their countries. The main topic of the youth forum was „How Youth Drive Change“ and the subthemes were „Citizens in Action: Youth in Political and Public Life“, „ Countering Youth Exclusion, Vulnerability and Violence“ and „Breaking Through Employment Barriers“ As a delegate from Slovakia representing Roma Education Centre, member of ternYpe network, I had the opportunity to take part in this forum. 7th Youth Forum was made up of plenary and parallel sessions where we discussed the subthemes which I have already mentioned. The results of the youth forum were put together in a final report including suggested resolutions prepared by the drafting committee elected by delegates, that will be presented at the general conference of UNESCO in October 2011. The most important resolutions were equal access of youth to education, employment and health care and also emphasing the vulnerability and exclusion of youth in order to find solutions or ways how to approach it. 

The need for more active participation of young people was emphasized as well. Based on my experience in this youth forum I missed cooperation between delegates and also not providing us more space to express our opinion and discuss issues that needed to be addressed and not going deep inside the issue. After completing the final resolutions of the youth forum, many delegates expressed their worries about not being heard and not having enough space to express themselves and we included our complaints and comments in the feedback given to the organisers of  the 7th UNESCO Youth Forum.

By Denisa Samkova 

Find out more about the UNESCO Youth Forum.