Bilkent Students Attend UNESCO Youth Forum
The 7th UNESCO Youth Forum took place October 17-21 in Paris, France. Among the youth from all over the world who participated in the forum as delegates were two Bilkent students, Eser Özgirgin (IR/II) and Sinan Kalpaklı (LAUD/II).
The conference, which aims to find solutions to problems that are common to youth worldwide, takes place every two years right before the general conference of UNESCO. This allows for transmission to the General Assembly of a resolution prepared by forum attendees. In addition to providing a venue for youth from around the world to meet and exchange ideas, the principal aim of the forum is the preparation of this resolution. The preparation process requires votes from all countries of each region. Following this, the youth forum's General Assembly carries out a final review of the resolution before sending it to the official UNESCO conference. In this way, the opinions of the youth representatives are officially legitimized in the two-year decree prepared by UNESCO.
The message delivered to the youth delegates throughout this year's conference was "Raise Your Voice!" The emblem of the forum, "YÖUTH," depicted this message, with the use of "Ö" instead of "O" creating a shouting emoticon. The conference encouraged delegates to participate actively in the discussion of various topics, giving them the chance to freely express their opinions as well as to hear those of youth from other countries.
Among those present during the forum were UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, and also Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker and Monique Coleman (from the movie "High School Musical") as youth and peace representatives for UNESCO. Another entertainer, Haitian singer Spaicy, performed during the conference.
The conference included a number of workshops, which had themes such as "leadership," "using media" and "communication," and were led by professional speakers. Forest Whitaker and his team took part in many workshops focusing on communication skills.
All delegates participated in drawing up the resolution document.
Each country voted within its own regional group on points for solution, and these points were eventually opened to discussion by the whole assembly. The main focus of the resolution was education, which it was declared should be given to all youth despite regional, cultural, physical and other differences. In addition, unemployment, active participation in society, cultural and artistic involvement, and the environment were among the points mentioned in the document. Unemployment, in particular, stood out as one of the urgent concerns of youth worldwide and was discussed in numerous contexts.
The forum also functioned as a venue for the discussion of regional problems. Many seminars were region-based, and focused solely on conflicts and solutions specific to particular areas. In addition, attendees had the opportunity to meet and share ideas during time set aside for them to socialize with their fellow delegates.
Many of the delegates had been chosen because they had either initiated or were leading projects that fostered social awareness in their own countries. For participants, the UNESCO Youth Forum was thus a motivating experience, giving them a notion of what their generation was capable of doing, no matter how difficult the conditions might be.