[previous] [next] [Table of Contents]
YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN GLOBAL DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES
The NGO Parallel Process
Youth '92, Global Youth Preparatory Forum for UNCED
The World Youth Preparatory Forum for UNCED, YOUTH '92, was held from March 22 - 29, 1992. Gathered together were more than 300 young people from 97 countries.
The conference objectives were:
To provide an opportunity for discussion, exchange of experiences and the establishment of networks among youth organizations that were involved or currently active in the areas of environment and/or
development.
To prepare the world youth platform for UNCED.
To coordinate the participation of the international youth
delegation to UNCED and the parallel NGO Forum.
To identify youth NGO follow-up strategies, after UNCED.
The YOUTH '92 Conference had a two year preparatory process. During this time, the conference acquired the characteristics that made it a very special and unique event.
YOUTH '92 was developed as a partnership project between young people from Costa Rica and Canada. The process was coordinated by the Costa Rican Preparatory Commission (a collective of 12 national and local organizations) and the Canadian Youth '92 Secretariat. These two Secretariats worked closely with the Brazilian Youth Committee, a collective of Brazilian youth organizations that was responsible to organize youth participation in Rio.
The direction taken by the YOUTH '92 process was defined by an International Youth Committee (IYC). This body was formed by representatives of key youth organizations around the world who served as contact points for their regions. The IYC met four times during the preparatory process. It oversaw the preparation of working documents and the programming for the Forum and also coordinated the regional participants selection processes.
The IYC defined the general criteria for the participant selection process. The criteria decided was as follows:
Balance in North-South participation: 75% of the delegates were from southern nations.
Gender balance: to ensure that gender balance was respected, the IYC recommended that each country identify one male and one female delegate for each official seat. (45% participants in the conference were women)
Diversity of political, religious, cultural, ethnic and national
backgrounds.
Balance between grassroots organizations and organizations at the national level.
The age of the participants was between 15 and 30 years.
Indigenous Peoples participated in their status as independent nations, to set a precedent of solidarity with their struggle for autonomy. (10% participants of the conference were indigenous people)
The selection process, as mentioned before, was coordinated by the IYC, who set up regional selection committees. These committees were responsible for establishing contact with the organizations from their regions, distributing information, coordinating regional preparatory events for YOUTH '92, and to fundraise for this regional processes.
The YOUTH '92 preparatory process encouraged the realization of different seminars, conferences and events around the world. The Canadian Secretariat had the responsibility to facilitate the process (along with the IYC members) in North America, Asia, Africa and oversee the process in Europe. The Costa Rican Commission was responsible for facilitating the process in Latin American and the Caribbean.
The decision to promote these preparatory activities to the Forum was made with the intention to get as many young people involved and informed about what was going on with the Earth Summit process. However its primary intention was to take advantage of the UNCED momentum, to encourage young people to sit down together, discuss their reality, discover and analyze the importance of having an international perspective on the environment and development issues. It also sought to realize that as a major sector, youth could and should play a very important role in the process to alleviate the environment and development crisis that our world is facing today, in the struggle for social justice and equity, along with the preservation and rational use of the Earth's natural resources.
Some of the most important preparatory activities of the YOUTH '92 process were: