On Friday 19 November, the 12th UNESCO Youth Forum was held focusing on the theme “Co-creation of the post-Covid period with young people”. The Politics Commission participated in the work through a delegate Anna Guerra, the result of the synthesis of the visions of young people from all over through a participatory process on November 5th. The draft document on which the consent worked was drawn up thanks to a complex participatory process assisted by digital technologies that made it possible to work simultaneously with shared documents, with the possibility of integrating the various visions. The meeting began with greetings from Gabriela Ramos, Assistant to the Director General for Social Sciences and Humanities, and Deputy Director General Xing Qu. The latter underlined how young people are not simply the future of our society but above all the present, often forgotten by national governments. He also wished the delegates a good job, hoping that the seeds planted with our commitment could become “immortal trees”. The meeting continued with the young speakers, nominated on a global basis, and those at the regional level who illustrated the not simple work of synthesis in the last two weeks. In particular, they emphasized issues for which no mediation was reached, leaving the decision on the matter to the plenary. The discussion is given on questions of form aimed at the inclusion of all attention, to which to direct more attention, and on the incisiveness of some terms, a symptom of an urgent action on particular issues. The eight responses, and the relative solutions addressed on the concrete contribution of young people, address the problematic consequences of the pandemic: the lack of facing the crisis and the consequent penalization of current educational challenges; the rise in youth unemployment due to fewer opportunities due to the pandemic; climate change which, according to recent and authoritative scientific research, will lead to further crises and disasters; the devastation on cultural heritage sites that these new resources could have and the participation of participation in the decision-making process of young people and local communities in this field; a decline in the well-being of young people (be it mental, physical or social), especially in vulnerable contexts and fragile areas; the lack of significant engagement of national governments with youth and youth associations; the existence of inequalities in access to digital literacy and inadequate technological technologies; lack of accessibility to information and a continuing repression of freedom of expression. The most evident result of the Forum is that young people from all over the world, despite their different cultural backgrounds, share a strong and concise message: national governments must adapt to a society that has completely transformed in the last 20 years and that the pandemic has deeply shaken by accelerating inevitable processes. An entire generation claims that their aspirations could be expressed and achieved in a respectful way of our human being through adequate education, that mental health is recognized as a fundamental aspect of our life, that digital is an incredible opportunity but also a threat to social relations, that the active participation of young people in public life and in the decision-making process requires an urgent and inevitable requirement for all national governments. Santiago Irazabal Mourao recalling that the 12th Youth Forum coincides with another important appointment for the organism: the anniversary of the 75th anniversary of the founding of UNESCO. The President stressed that the circumstances of the time were not too different from the current ones and then thanked the delegates, borrowing the words of the famous song Let it be by the Beatles, for “whispering the words of wisdom” that will guide the actions of the own assembly in the next three years. The Youth Policy Commission firmly hopes that San Marino politics will also take note of these recommendations and be able to make them its own in future policies. In particular, we turn to the Councilors of our age, who can bring these issues to the fore and who can bear witness to the voice of an entire generation.
Cs Youth Policy Commission