Over 350 attend Youth Summit in Trinidad
The Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain is not only the meeting ground for a thousand plus journalists who hope for a chance to interview United States President Barack Obama. It is also the venue where youths from all over North, Central and South America are converging for the Youth Forum of the Americas. Three hundred and fifty adolescents are participating in the two day youth event. They will debate and discuss draft legislation on youth issues that will be presented to the thirty-three heads of state of governments during Sunday’s closing ceremony. News Five’s Marleni Cuellar attended day one of the youth forum and filed this report.
Marleni Cuellar
“The fifth Summit of the Americas doesn’t take off until Friday. But in the days leading up to the event, there sideline forums taking place including one for the civil society, one for the private sector and even one for young people. The Youth Forum of the Americas is a two day event that’s being held in Trinidad where over three hundred people are convened to be able to discuss a bit about how the summit themes affect them.”
Christalle Gemon, Coordinator, Youth Forum of the Americas
“The forum is taking place in connection or in partnership with the young Americas Business Trust, the Young Americas Business Trust is the youth arm of the OAS. So we have very, very close partnership with Y.A.B.T. and actually this is one of our Y.A.B.T. partners right here. Y.A.B.T. has been working in close connection with the national secretariat to pull of the youth forum. What we’ve done, we’ve had four regional dialogues. So the regional dialogues took place in Mexico, North America, Paraguay and the Caribbean and in these dialogues the youth are encouraged to discuss their ideas and make recommendations on the overall themes of the summit, which are environmental sustainability, human prosperity and energy security. The outcome of the four dialogues are looked at very closely and then compiled into a draft youth statement to heads of states and governments.”
Kamal Powell, Youth Delegate, Jamaica
“As young people, we believe that the inclusion of young people’s voices into the decision making process is very critical for a nation’s development and the future of the world. And that is why we’re here today trying to challenge our leaders to take a more active approach in listening to our young people. This forum, I believe, has done very well in guiding young people’s voices and trying to get them into the decision making process. But we need to take it a step further in trying to get the voices that are heard today and the actions going forward to ensure that our young people get a beautiful and a functional world to live in.”
Marleni Cuellar
“What are you most excited about in terms of attending the forum?”
Khadija James, Youth Delegate, Trinidad
“Basically, to me hearing exactly what decisions exactly have been made that will affect young people’s specifically.”
Marleni Cuellar
“Now my last question to you is going to be why do you think it’s important that young people are allowed to have or are given the outlet to be able to have a summit alongside the Summit of the Americas?”
Khadija James
“Okay, well young people do make up a good percentage of the population throughout the world, one. Two, basically, we are the future and the decisions that they make, we may have to carry on that. So basically, it’s kind of like succession planning. So you need to hear what’s going on and feedback everything.”
Marleni Cuellar
“Now when the statement is made right before the—at the end of the youth summit, what is going to be done with the declaration?”
Gary Hunt, Minister of Sport and Youth, Trinidad
“Oh, the declaration is going to be accepted by the Honourable Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and he will present that to all the heads of governments of the Americas during the summit.”
Marleni Cuellar
“Now, do you think that it is something that will carry a lot of weight in the summit itself?”
Gary Hunt
“Oh yes, certainly. The government of Trinidad and Tobago is a large emphasis on—we see youths of Trinidad and Tobago as a major stakeholder in the national development. Similarly, from one of the top leaders of the world, Barrack Obama puts a lot of emphasis on youth development. So the many countries of the Americas, and I think it will have. This is the first time ever this is going to happen. It’s very historic and it’s very progressive and as I said earlier, youth is the engine of the world.”
Kamal Powell
“Through networking and communication, we’re trying to get all the countries, all the regions, to make sure that when the heads of government from this forum agree to the recommendations that we make, we are going to be going back to our countries and ensuring that they follow the recommendations because form this heads of government meeting, they ensure that the recommendations that are met are upheld. And it’s for us and the civil society business community to ensure that our governments live up to whatever they promised the young people.”
