{"id":30538,"date":"2017-08-12T16:56:41","date_gmt":"2017-08-12T16:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/?p=30538"},"modified":"2017-08-14T17:00:15","modified_gmt":"2017-08-14T17:00:15","slug":"in-iraq-un-youth-envoy-says-young-people-are-most-valuable-force-we-have-to-shape-a-better-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/blog\/2017\/08\/in-iraq-un-youth-envoy-says-young-people-are-most-valuable-force-we-have-to-shape-a-better-future\/","title":{"rendered":"In Iraq, UN Youth Envoy says young people are ‘most valuable force we have to shape a better future’"},"content":{"rendered":"

As\u00a0International Youth Day<\/a>\u00a0events kicked off worldwide today, at a special event in Iraq, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, Jayathma Wickramanayake, pledged to do everything in her power to ensure the voices of youths, including those working to build peace, are heard.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, thousands of young women and men work tirelessly, often under very dangerous conditions and with very little support or recognition, to build peace and promote security for all,\u201d Ms. Wickramanayake told the event, which was hosted by the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Iraq.<\/p>\n

The event, in Baghdad, is part of the\u00a0newly-appointed<\/a>\u00a0Envoy’s first international mission. Her activities have touched on the theme of the 2017 edition of the Day, ‘Youth Building Peace,’ dedicated to celebrating young people’s contributions to conflict prevention and transformation as well as inclusion, social justice, and sustainable peace.<\/p>\n

As one of the most youthful countries in the world with over 60 percent of the population under the age of 25, Iraq \u2013 despite the many challenges it faces \u2013 is uniquely positioned to harness the potential of its young generation to promote peace and prosperity.<\/p>\n

Challenges will remain however, and continue to obstruct a path to development and peace if they are not matched by offering young people real opportunities for education, employment and civic participation.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Young people] are the most valuable force we have to shape a better future,\u201d Ms. Wickramanayake said, and added, in a\u00a0message<\/a>\u00a0directed to the young people of Iraq: \u201cThe United Nations is with you and I, as your Envoy, will do everything within my power to ensure that your voices are heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event, organized in partnership with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA<\/a>) Country Office in Baghdad, convened over 1,000 young people from all over Iraq and was attended by Abed Al-Hussein Abtan, Minister of Youth and Sports of Iraq, and Lise Grande, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201cReconciliation is \u2013 right now and without doubt \u2013 the highest priority in Iraq,\u201d said Ms. Grande, and the key to ensuring that reconciliation is sustainable \u201cis ensuring that youth are involved in every reconciliation meeting, every reconciliation initiative and every reconciliation conference.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his part, Mr. Abtan called on Iraqi youth to \u201cplay the true role in contributing to all aspects of life in order to create an advanced Iraq that conveys a positive picture to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0Youth can play ‘critical role’ in creating a peaceful world for generations to come \u2013 UN chief<\/a><\/p>\n

While in Baghdad, Ms. Wickramanayake met with young people from different backgrounds to discuss issues affecting Iraqi youth, with a particular focus on young women, internally displaced young people, and young people who are neither in employment, education, or training.<\/p>\n

In addition, she met with the Officials of the Ministry of Youth and the Heads and Officials of UN Country team and the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI<\/a>) and discussed further avenues to strengthen youth focused programmes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Via UN News Centre<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As\u00a0International Youth Day\u00a0events kicked off worldwide today, at a special […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":243,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5591],"tags":[4211],"class_list":["post-30538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-youth","tag-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}