Youth Participation- a Bulgarian Epistle
At the wake of the work of the youth delegates in the 64th session of the United Nations general assembly, now is the right time to present viewpoints, ideas and messages. The main one that Bulgaria is going to communicate to the Organization through all means possible is a paraphrase of JFK’s famous phrase “Do not ask what the state can do for you, ask what you can do for the state”.
Our message is a bit different: “Do not ask what the UN can do for you, ask what you can do for the UN”. As youth delegates we all are and we all represent active young people from our countries. Thus, we are all aware of how crucial youth participation and youth activities are. In fact, as defined by the World Program of Action for Youth, youth participation is the only “interactive” priority area where actions can be undertaken not only on part of the UN but also on part of youth, to whom the WPAY is dedicated.
As representatives of an active society with more than 30 large active NGOs with more than 10000 active members under the age of 30 we believe it is time to make all areas interactive. It is time to foster youth activities on the global scale. It is time to introduce the United Nations as a key factor in youth policies all around the globe, the way that it already is a key factor in eliminating poverty and fostering development. It is time to help young people regardless of sex, color and ethnical background realize that they are in charge of their own destiny.
The Bulgarian delegation has its humble proposals as to how we can achieve this end. Most certainly, so do other delegations. As people with experience in the NGO sector, as people who know the specific dynamics of youth organizations, and as people who represent a whole new generation- a determined and motivated layer of society it is our duty to discuss how we can increase youth participation and how we can improve the connection between the UN and young people.
Cooperativeness and desire to tackle the issue of youth participation is all it takes to achieve significant advancement in all priority areas of the WPAY. Moreover, it is the only way to turn our whole new generation into the United Nations generation.
Atanas Mihnev,
Bulgarian Youth Delegate to the United Nations for 2009
