CYC Regional Representative Dominique Noralez Participates in C.H.O.G.M. 2022
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2022, kicked off on the eighteen of June in Kigali, Rwanda, with a Commonwealth Youth Council Forum that ran for four days. Belizean Dominique Noralez was in attendance at the Youth Forum as the Regional Representative for the Caribbean of the Commonwealth Youth Council (C.Y.C.). Noralez was among some three hundred youth delegates from across the Commonwealth who joined forces in deliberating key issues affecting the youth population. From those discussions came the finalization of a Youth Declaration that has been in the works for the past twelve months. This document will inform the C.Y.C.’s programs moving forward. Commonwealth Heads of Government will also be reviewing the declaration over the next few days. We spoke to Noralez who is back in Belize.
Dominque Noralez, Regional Representative, Commonwealth Youth Council
“The declaration has not been released yet. It was a year long process. It started well before the Commonwealth Youth Forum, the CYF would have started. So, young people would have been engaged over a year. It was drafted and redrafted, edited and reedited. Then, at the CYF the action plans that would have come out would then be integrated into that. So, the Heads of Government are the people who then would say yes we agree with what the young people are saying. We sign off on it and we will do our best to support what the young people want in that declaration. The action point’s deal with migration, which is quote interesting seeing the Summit of the Americas, was forced on migration. So, there were some migration aspects. There were also some ICT, making sure there is accountability within the CYC itself as an administration. There were also environmental aspects as well. So, I think it was like eight action points approved, because the young people then presented to us, the General Assembly. I was also Belize’s proxy voter to the Commonwealth Youth Council. So, the young people who would have participated in these twelve thematic labs presented it to us. We voted on it, approved, disapproved, and that is what is a part of the declaration and what is a part of our program items for the CYC. There is a lot of repairing on the way young people view politicians across the globe, not just the Commonwealth. So, we can operate in good faith and to our jobs as advocates and activist and make sure we do our work to hold these Heads of Government accountable when it is they are not supporting what they said they would support. The actual CHOGM, the Heads of Government Meeting starts today, and so that is one of the agenda items. We had to finish our part to have it included in their agenda, so we have done our part.”