ICPD-Beyond 2014 GYF: A New Day in the Achievement of Youths Rights Has Come

Talking about young people in the part of the world where I come is already  a sensitive issue and adding ‘rights’ which is another very explosive issue to this  makes  advocacy for the placing of youth rights at the heart of development  a very difficult but not an impossible task. Behind these words lies the fears, doubts, and optimism of a participant at the just ended International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD)-Beyond 2014 Global youth Forum (GYF) which held from the 4^th to the 6^th December 2012.They are also the words that come to my mind whenever I think about this forum and the impact its outcomes will have on the future of young people and therefore our world as a whole.

                                         

The fruits of the optimism raised and the hopes re-enkindled by the ICPD-Beyond 2014 GYF not only in the young persons that attended this event but above all in the lives of the millions of young persons that are marginalized, down trodden, and persecuted because of their gender, age, political choices, and sexual orientation, will no doubt become reality as youths irrespective of their social status, religious beliefs, and gender have been empowered and energized by this forum.

With most of the recommendations from the ICPD-Beyond 2014 GYF urging governments, international bodies, and civil societies to recognize the rights of all young persons especially the marginalized, suffering and persecuted(the girl child, sexual minorities, rural dwellers, the uneducated) and  establish an enabling environment for the potentials of every young person to be unleashed  and his/her dreams fulfilled, the forum is ended but has opened an avenue for  youths to  claim what is theirs and take their places in decision making cycles in their various countries.

Enlightened, empowered, and inspired by the passion and enthusiasm I witnessed in Bali, the following words came to my mind in the evening of the 6^th of December as the forum ended: ‘What happens when it comes time to part? Well you know how when you’re listening to music from another room and you’re singing along, because it’s a tune you really love, when the door closes, or  a train passes, and  you can’t  hear the music anymore, but you sing along anyway?’ Just like the song described in this scene from the   movie, ‘Music from Another Room’, the journey towards achieving youths rights might have begun long ago, Bali marked a new beginning in this fight  for  the rights of young people in all their diversity to be recognized and respected in the society where they live.