Global Youth Assembly engages future world leaders to make change

Thursday, 9 August 2007

Young people from around the world gathered last week at the Global Youth Assembly in Edmonton to discuss issues such as poverty, racism, and violence, as well as to find ways to tackle them.

The conference, hosted by the John Humphrey Centre for Human Rights, marked the first time it’s been held outside of New York, and attracted over 500 delegates.

Kiran Chaudry, the coordinator of the event, explained that she wanted to attract more than just political science students and to engage youth from all walks of life.

“There’s a lot of poli-sci people who are really interested in the issues,” she said. “But in order to have greater change, we need to make sure we are engaging a broad and diverse spectrum of views.”

Workshop presenters Aimee Fullman and Lisa Baroldi said they were impressed with how interested the delegates were. Their workshop had a mock debate on the Convention on Cultural Diversity, an international agreement designed to promote and protect cultures within countries. Although the Convention is rooted in the UN, Baroldi said the workshop attracted more than those involved in global politics.

“Even the tech guy spoke with us for 20 minutes before and after [the workshop],” Fullman said. “What is very inspiring is how interested everyone seemed and how genuinely they cared.

“People were getting up and saying ‘In my country, we practiced genital mutilation,’ and talked about their own experiences.”

Muna Peria, a delegate from Ottawa, said the inspiring stories shared at conferences such as the Global Youth Assembly is what people remember.

“Sometimes, as we’re doing work, you can get jaded,” Peria explained. “It’s interesting to find out different ways people look at problems, and the ways [they] deal with them.”

Peria said the Assembly is a “recharge” for her before going back to school in September.

“It’s been stimulating in terms of my own thoughts on what I’m going to do when I get back home,” she said. “A place like this is a place of inspiration and an opportunity to connect with young people.”

The Assembly also presented ways of reaching out to more young people. Sol Guy, a Canadian music producer, showcased 4REAL, the TV series he’s producing that’s set to air on CTV and MTV Canada. The show takes rich celebrities to developing countries to meet young leaders changing their communities under extreme circumstances.

Guy hopes that presenting social problems on channels like MTV makes youth feel that it’s “cool to care,” explaining that serious issues get large followings when it’s popular to discuss it.

“People [have] got to engage—and people don’t tend to engage until it really gets to that point. I hope that we pass on the spirit and energy of those young leaders we feature around the world to ignite change.”

Guy feels that if 4REAL makes youth care, it will start the first steps toward helping others.

“If you open your heart up and open it to the world around you, you can’t help but be affected,” he said. “You give enough information to engage young people, and if they want, they can take it further.”

Fullman feels the conference grabbed the attention of youths simply by thinking about their views on society. In the workshop she and Baroldi held, a 1997 trade dispute between Canada and the US was examined.

In that dispute, Canada argued that magazines represented a country’s culture, justifying a tariff on American magazines. Attendees had to decide what items embodies culture and explain why.

“What was amazing about this session was that kids really picked up on [the] vagueness,” she explained. “Success is having someone think about something in a slightly different way and just going home thinking about it.”

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