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YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN GLOBAL DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES
The official UNCED Preparatory Process
The official process is defined as one developed by governments and UN System agencies. The more concrete spaces for participation of youth in the official process, were the Preparatory Committee Meetings (not all of them), and in some cases the national report writing that each country was supposed to develop in consultation with the society.
Young people had a more consistent participation in the official process since PrepCom III in Geneva, August 1991. Before that, some youth participated in the process, but the efforts were not well coordinated and youth participation was definitely not very large. In PrepCom III, there was larger youth representation from different activities of youth organizations which were going on around the world. Youth participants at PrepCom III lobbied strongly with governments that showed some interest in the issue of youth. The lobby was very successful: a Youth Chapter was to be incorporated into Agenda 21.
By PrepCom IV, youth participants had learned how the negotiating process at the UN functions; how to work and relate to other NGO sectors; how to have the best impact in the process; and how to lobby official government delegations. As one young activist from Asia explained:
"For the youth who were involved in pressuring governments out of their lethargy during the various negotiation sessions leading up to the Earth Summit, we learnt to grow up very quickly". (ASA News, March/June, 1992)
A very important new characteristic of PrepCom IV was that national youth organizations put pressure on their governments to include youth representatives as part of the official delegation. In some cases, these efforts were successful and delegations such as the Canadian, the Costa Rican, the Dutch, and some Nordic countries, among others, actually had a youth representative. This situation allowed the youth present at PrepCom IV to introduce changes to the Youth Chapter (the text developed by the UNCED Secretariat with no real consultation with the youth sector, was very far from fulfilling youth expectations).
Youth participation in the official delegations was in many cases window dressing. The "youth delegates" faced different problems with their delegations. Some of them were even asked to consult with their National Ambassador to the UN before trying to present any position or proposal to the negotiating groups. This situation was odd, because on many occasions, in the middle of a "hot" discussion of the negotiating process, this procedure was almost impossible or unachievable. Some of the delegates were limited to a "recommendation role" and sometimes when they tried to offer suggestions or assume a more participatory role, their were given a stern warning. Having young people in the official delegation was definitely not an insurance that youth was really being taken seriously in the process; but it was a step forward that set a important precedent for youth involvement in some official delegations, in Rio.
It is important to point out that youth arrived in New York, as did many other NGO sectors, with not much hope for the results that the process was generating. A lot of their concerns were related to the very high level of participation and influence obtained by transnational corporations (TNCs) in the process of blocking any type of code of conduct for TNCs. Also, at that point, some governments from very "powerful" nations, such as the US Government, were trying to block and erase some very important statements and regulations from the different documents that were being discussed. (e.g. the Climate Change Convention and the Biodiversity Convention). In general, the process did not look very good, in terms of the lack of commitment from governments to address the most important issues, such as debt, structural adjustment processes, militarism, TNCs regulation and financial commitments for the follow-up process to the Earth Summit.
Due to this, youth participation in PrepCom IV focused not only on the content of the Youth Chapter, but on denouncing all the situations that weakened the final agreements and results. Many protest actions were taken by US activists and young people from other regions of the world who were present in PrepCom IV. In a way, youth wanted to let the world know that the process was not good and that the Earth Summit, instead of being a step towards the solution of the world environment and development crisis, was going to be a step backwards.
At the same time as PrepCom IV, the YOUTH '92 Conference, was taking place in San Jose, Costa Rica. The youth conference produced a statement and proposals for the Earth Summit. Some of the delegates to the conference had the opportunity to go to New York, to present the Youth Statement on Environment and Development from Youth '92 to governments in PrepCom IV. A special event was organized with this objective, but the activity was a complete failure. Only two governments showed up and the Secretary General of UNCED, Maurice F. Strong, stayed for just a few minutes, not long enough to hear the whole presentation of the youth statement.