International Youth Forum 2019 on Peace, Social Justice & SDGs

Application open for  3rd International  Youth Forum on Peace, Social Justice & SDGs!!! Supported by the Government of India and Department of Health, State Government of Tamilnadu 

Since 2017, The international Youth forum (IYF) has become a platform where young people can contribute to policy discussions at the International Platform through their collective ideas, solutions and innovations. The Forum allows representatives of youth-led and youth-focused organizations and networks, youth advocates and others to dialogue with International Policymakers, and to explore ways and means of promoting youth development and engagement.

The third International youth forum, to be held from 14 to 15 September 2019, will place with the concept on “Peace, Social Equality, SDGs” in Chennai, India.

With 1.8 billion people between the ages of 10 and 24, youth around the world face their fair share of challenges. Whether these challenges are in education or employment, they are highly important

and need to be addressed. A proper response to youth challenges needs the involvement of young people themselves in decision-making and political leadership. IYF2019 which aims to educate and aware young population on the importance and foster their engagement for sustaining peace through Social Equality, Human Rights and Sustainable Development Goals further build their capacities for advocacy on standing for Equality, Justice and Human Dignity.

The International Youth Forum is, therefore, an important dedicated space to engage in the discussion on how to make globalization work for everyone through the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. This universal, integrated agenda is designed to ensure equitable sharing of the benefits of globalization. This engagement will not only help to deliver results but also strengthen accountability

The Forum will contribute to High-Level Segments, which will be held in September 2019 on the theme “Partnering with Youth to Achieve SDGs Human Rights, institutionalize democracy and Peace: Moving from Policy to Action”. The SDGs to Revived in IYF 2019 are : Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing Goal 4: Quality Education “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” Goal 5: Gender equality Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth“Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all, Goal 10: Reducing inequalities Reduce income inequality within and among countries, Goal 13: Climate action Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impact Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels, Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development and also Others Respectively.

The 17 Sustainable Development (Global) Goals – especially Goal 16 Peace & Justice –  will be focused as it relates to Human Rights and used as a way of supporting learning about Peace & Justice (its causes and consequences; positives and negatives) and educating peers, colleagues, policy makers, politicians, and the public on key issues relating to Peace & Social Justice.

We can be the first generation to end extreme poverty, the most determined generation in history to end injustice and inequality, and the last generation to be threatened by climate change.

We all can be part of this. Let’s Change the World together!

Objectives:

1. To share knowledge on achieving youth development by promoting the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
2. To launch ideas and initiatives for collective action for people, planet, peace and prosperity.
3. To raise an informative generation on the current situation of youth and Social Equality conflicts with anticipated behavior adaptation and consequently admission to decision making amongst youth.
4. To foster youth action towards implementation of ideas brought forward by the young people for the benefit of the societies. 

Format and Participants:

The 2019 IYF Forum will feature opening and closing plenary sessions with representatives from youth organizations, high-level and other keynote speakers. The program will also include thematic and regional breakout sessions. During the interactive sessions, the moderators will have a primary role to actively engage the audience, using social media, with pertinent questions related to the various themes to be addressed. Best practices and lessons learned could be shared that may benefit others. Representatives of youth-led and youth-focused organizations and networks, civil society and the private sector will provide views on youth development and engagement trends.

Young people will also be encouraged to make individual and group commitments for action for achieving the SDGs. The discussion will also reinforce the need for measures to ensure that globalization is embraced by everyone and its burdens and blessings are shared equally.

The Forum will also reflect the diversity of youth organizations, include a balanced representation of youth from developed and developing countries and ensure representation of youth from rural communities, indigenous groups and people with disability, both men and women.

The meeting will be webcast and participants will be able to pose questions via social media through Facebook and Twitter.

Outcome

The outcome will be named “Chennai Youth Declaration” of the proceedings by the President and General Secretary of IYF2019 capturing key outcomes of the discussions and findings of the forum, which will be made available to the following youth programs of United Nations, Commonwealth, Europe Union, African Union, various governments and other stake holders.