Yesterday, on the 7th of February, the Youth Delegates of Romania had a speech which was delivered by my colleague Alexandra Martin in the plenary session of the Commission for Social Development.
This speech represents the common effort of many supporters and partners of the project, from which I would like to mention the Romanian Council for Youth and Oricum Association. Thank you all and I hope you like our intervention at the UN. Here it is:
“Madam Chair and honorable Delegates,
200 million youth live with less than 1$/ day, of the 130 million illiterate people in the world nearly 60 per cent are young women; youth also make up 44 per cent of the total unemployed population, although they represent 25 per cent of the working age population and I cannot be but grateful to have the opportunity to be here and to present an overview of our ideals, honest thoughts and proposals for joining our efforts in building up a better world.
The progress achieved so far has a main role in our development process, yet the fight is far to be concluded. Taking into account the present global perspectives young people face new challenges and it is our moral obligation to cooperate, especially now when youth are voicing their concerns whilst they keep facing new risks. Continue reading ‘Our Speech at the CSocD!’
It’s been a long time since you’ve read my last post on this blog, but since I’m back in New York, this time for The Commission for Social Development(CSocD) I’m thinking it is time to revitalize my blog and let you all know what the Romania’s Youth Delegates are doing in this time of the year.
After spending 20 hours in the Milan airport because of bad weather, we started working with our Mission and other youth delegates at the draft for the resolution on youth that you will all have the opportunity to see soon. Although not many countries decided to send youth delegates for the CSocD, we are all very enthusiast and restless. The new resolution on youth has brought a lot of interest from all of the member states and the negotiations are quite hard on this matter.
Me and Alexandra have prepared a speech for today’s plenary session regarding youth participation and social integration, and we will post the speech as soon as we’re going to deliver it.
Otherwise, it is very cold in New York, but since we haven’t had the time for anything else besides the CScoD and the work at the Romanian Mission we couldn’t care less for the weather. We do hope that it’s going to be a lot warmer in the weekend.
I’ll try to keep you posted with everything.
European Union is one of the most powerful political groups at the UN. The 27 EU member states comprise more than one-eighth of all votes in the UN General Assembly and EU member and candidate countries account for one-third of the UN Security Council’s current membership, not to mention the significant financial contribution to the UN system. The EU Member States meet regularly - every morning in this period of the year, to coordinate their positions on various issues and resolutions.
The reason I’m writing this is to give you a broad perspective on the way things work around here. In order to have a proposal passed by the General Assembly it is best to pass it first through the European Union coordination meetings, in order to have a stronger voice and our proposals to be supported by all the 27 member states and the candidate countries for the EU. However, all the EU member states have similar views in general over development and the steps that need to be taken for solving global issues, so our work is basically reduced to coordinating our efforts than to negotiating our proposals.
Yesterday I took part at a very interesting side-event with the topic focused on the death penalty and the UN’s last year’s resolution with the recommendation to the member states to abolish this form of punishment for all types of crime. In the panel of speakers we had the opportunity to listen the testimonials of 3 ex-judges and prosecutors from Japan and United States that are responsible for the prosecution and execution of more than one person, and that are now conducting a large scale campaign against this form of punishment, because in their experience it seems that many mistakes have been made and many innocent people have died.
Another busy week for me at the UN and I would first like to express my regret for not being able to keep you guys updated on a daily basis.
The most important event that marked our week was the youth delegates side event “Do not sever your lifeline!
Why involving young people is crucial for development, especially in achieving the MDGs, and how to engage them.” It was an one hour and a half side event, entirely organized by the youth delegates, in which we discussed the importance of involving youth into the fight to achieve the MDG’s and different ways and examples in which we can inform and implicate young people into this process.
Beside the general discusions on the topic, we had some scheduled interventions from H.E. Frank Majoor - Permanent Representative of the Kingdom Netherlands, Mr. Salil Shetty - Director of the Millennium Campaign, Mrs. Laura Laski - Coordinator Adolescent and Youth Cluster, UNFPA, Mrs. Fraziska Steel - Director Global Youth Action Network and two statements from the youth delegates of Thailand and Jamaica.
The event ended with the wonderful performance of the poet Aja‐Monet Bacquie.
I would also like to once more express my appreciation towards the Romanian Permanent Mission at the United Nations, whose representatives showed a great interest and support for this event - Amb. Simona-Mirela Miculescu, Mr. Traian FILIP - Minister Counsellor, Deputy Permanent Representative and our SUPERvisor for this General Assembly - Mr. Alexandru CIOROBEA - Third Secretary.
Unfortunately, we are experiencing some technical difficulties with attaching pictures to our posts, but I’m going to get back to you with some photos as well, shortly.
Although it’s now a weekend and we’re all trying to relax a little bit, me and Alexandra have had quite a busy weekend, preparing some proposals for bringing youth more into attention, by modifying some paragraphs from the Education for All Resolution. I don’t know about the last years, but I can now say that I have the privilege to work with some very active, intelligent and enthusiastic youth delegates from 16 other countries, that are really trying to make a change and involve the youth ideals and spirit into everything that UN is doing. Also, it is really a great opportunity for us to be working with the Romanian Permanent Mission here, that seems a little bit out of the usual picture that we all got used to already back home - hard working people, always open to our ideas and needs. UN is a very old organization and I find it to be the most caution structure that I have ever been in contact with. This is why, every word in every resolution must be properly interpreted and analyzed from all points of view, making our work here a very long but durable process.
Tuesday afternoon, me and Alexandra held a speech in the Third Committee for Social Development at the United Nations. Although initialy we each prepared one speech, due to procedural limitations we had to have a common message for the UN.
Since this is my personal blog :-p, I’m ataching my original speech, as it was meant to be, and you can all read our common speech on the unyouthdelegate.ro and on the unyouthdelegates.org websites, where it will be uploaded shortly.
Here it goes:
“ Mr. Chairman and honorable delegates,
A lot of people travel many miles to find the end of the world. As we all know, the world is round and the end is fortunately nowhere to be found, but now, we can all say that the world as we know it, has a top, and that top of the world in 2008 is in a symbolic way represented by the United Nations - a place where the entire humanity gathers and works together for achieving the goals that they have themselves agreed upon. Continue reading ‘My message towards the nations present at the UN!’
Today at noon we had a very exciting meeting with the Secretary General of the United Nations. His busy schedule didn’t allow him to stay with the youth delegates more than 20 minutes, but I can say that those 20 minutes were very intense and empowering at the same time. Mr. BAN KI-MOON can indeed make quite an impression on somebody just by giving a speech. It wasn’t really the case here, cause he took his time to shortly listen to more than 20 youth delegates that attended the meeting and to give a short feedback to all of the problems that we decided to bring to his attention. (we each prepared a short phrase to emphasize the most important issue that young people in our country have to deal with). The meeting ended with a photo shoot and a short message from the Secretary General towards youth all over the world : he wanted to underline that today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders and the important role that youth play in achieving the millennium goals, especially those that address durable development and the preservation of the environment. Indeed an inspiring meeting we all had today, and we hope to reedit this event before we leave New York.
A trecut ceva vreme de cand nu am mai scris pe acest blog, dar acum am ajuns in New York, capitala lumii asa cum o stim noi si a venit timpul sa ne apucam de treaba in adevaratul sens al cuvantului.
Misiunea Permanenta a Romaniei la ONU, locul unde eu si Alexandra suntem cazati, e un loc primitor in inima Manhattan-ului, cu oameni calzi si deschisi la tot ceea ce e nou. Prima zi aici a debutat cu un exercitiu mai neobisnuit - cunoasterea personalului misiunii, in care i-am vazut pe toti, de la Doamna Ambasador Miculescu, pana la portari si soferi, reamenajand un spatiu din cladirea de 16 etaje a misiunii. Exceptionala echipa de aici! Cel putin asa ni s-a parut la prima vedere.
Printre caratul rafturilor si a dosarelor, am “intrat si noi in paine” Continue reading ‘Cateva luni mai tarziu!’
Ieri s-a deschis primul centru de informare turistica din Cluj-Napoca. Situat ultra-central, centrul ofera celor interesati informatii legate de cazare, obiective si trasee turistice, precum si acces gratuit la internet sau harti virtuale ale orasului.
Daca veniti pentru prima data in Cluj, sau chiar daca ati mai fost, dar nu ati apucat sa gustati putin din istoria si frumusetea acestui oras va recomand cu caldura acest centru, situat pe Bulevardul Eroilor nr. 6-8, mai ales ca toate facilitatile oferite sunt gratuite.
O initiativa laudabila a primariei Cluj-Napoca pe care sper sa o vedem copiata in cat mai multe orase din tara.
Dupa un drum lung si obositor, am reusit sa ne intalnim cu totii sambata la Cluj, in sediul OSM si am inceput sa punem tara la cale.
Toata intalnirea s-a axat in jurul meu si al Alexandrei, si le multumesc Corinei, Biancai, Dariei si lui Andrei pentru tot suportul pe care ni l-au acordat in acest weekend.
Dupa un curs intensiv despre modul de functionare a mecanismelor ONU, am discutat prerogativele noastre in acest mandat, despre care va voi mai multe detalii imediat ce terminam de editat tot materialul, precum si despre relatia noastra cu institutiile statului si cu tinerii romani de pretutindeni.
Intalnirea a culminat duminica cu o mica “masa rotunda” cu alti tineri deosebit de inteligenti si entuziasti, reprezentanti ai unor organizatii studentesti din Cluj-Napoca. Am pus bazele unui grup de discutii pe care va invit sa intrati, in cazul in care va intereseaza problematica ONU si am analizat impreuna problemele intampinate de tinerii romani in ceea ce priveste gasirea unui loc de munca si migrarea tinerilor spre alte tari - teme pe care eu si Alexandra le vom dezbate si la New York in toamna, in cadrul Adunarii Generale a ONU.
Adresa grupului este tineri_la_onu@googlegroups.com si va invitam sa aderati la el si sa dezbatem impreuna toate problemele care ne intereseaza.
Le multumesc tuturor pentru un weekend minunat si sper sa ne revedem in curand la Bucuresti pentru ca urmeaza o serie de intalniri deosebit de importante asupra carora voi reveni intr-un post viitor.