Global Youth Forum 2020: Day 1

The 8th Global Youth Forum was held online via Zoom on 24-25 October 2020, assembling 36 participants from 18 different countries. The main subject Acting on the Earth Charter allowed a rich exchange between young people and experienced professors, creating solutions and sharing awareness about several risks we are facing as a community, like the climate crises or social disparities.

Acting on the Earth Charter

The Earth Charter agreed 20 years ago after a long and wide consultative process among many representatives of civil society from around the world provides an essential consensus document on the basic principles and values that should underlie humanity’s relationship to nature. It has four pillars: respect and care for the community of life; ecology integrity; social and economic justice; and democracy, non-violence, and peace.

It is an ethical framework for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century. It seeks to inspire in all people a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the whole human family, the greater community of life, and future generations. It is a vision of hope and a call to action.

Introductory speeches

Prof. Dr. Federico Mayor, President of the ECPD Council motivated us in his inaugural speech to use our voices, our free will to express ourselves, taking responsibility, and sharing awareness of current issues, to take action for common change. He called on young people to be protagonists, to fully participate in this new era of digitalization. He underlined his statements with a quote: “If I participate I exist”. Since we have our voices, since we are able to participate, it is up to us as human beings to use this opportunity to overcome our problems, to visualize that we exist.

Prof. Dr. Francisco Rojas Aravena, Rector of the University for Peace in Costa Rica, gave a speech on how creating peace, acting on peace can be a road full of obstacles. Especially in these times, we are facing a global pandemic, increasing nationalism, xenophobia, climate change, and lack of tolerance. To overcome such obstacles Prof. Rojas emphasized the terms “multilateralism, cooperation and solidarity”, and also the importance of the United Nations to provide for a sustainable and peaceful world.

Dr. Ouided Bouchamaoui, Vice President of the ECPD Council and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2015 referred to the present difficulties with Covid-19, how it affects everyone’s life, especially human relations and those who have less, requiring total lockdowns and containment. Mrs. Bouchamaoui referred to Principles 9b and 14 of the Earth Charter when talking about childcare and education. Human beings are responsible to empower one another with education, providing social security for those who cannot support themselves. She called on us to take action together to enhance a sustainable and just world.

The first official session was led by Prof. Dahl with a workshop on how to live based on the values of the Earth Charter. Initially, he outlined the foundations of the Earth Charter, from its origins through its official adoption to personal implementation.

For a better workspace four breakout sessions were created, where questions presented by Prof. Dahl were discussed. The groups chose to work on the following questions from the concept note. Each group presented their results in the main session.

• How might we design a local project or community consultation to make environmental conservation and rehabilitation integral to all local development initiatives?
  

• What further efforts can we make in our own lives to eliminate discrimination in all its forms, such as that based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, language, and national, ethnic, or social origin?
  

• How can we help our generation to recognize that peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, Earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part?

After the lunch break, Professor Naresh Singh joined the meeting for his workshop on Youth Self-Empowerment for action on the Earth Charter. He explained to the participants how and why to mobilize people around you. It became clear that the main focus in our society should be on how people are connected and unified instead of concentrating on how we differentiate from one another. Participants discussed self-empowerment in groups, from “design thinking, scenario planning to gentle action and transformation” how change can be envisioned and implemented. Prof. Singh’s workshop gave significant insights that youth and change are coherent and are a crucial part of the solution. However, this is not the definitive answer for global change.

The views and opinions expressed here belong to the author or interviewee and do not necessarily reflect those of  The Youth Cafe.