Youth, Dialogue and Mutual Understanding debated at UN Headquarters on 25 and 26 July

The United Nations General Assembly will hold a High-Level Meeting on youth at UN Headquarters in New York, on 25 and 26 July 2011, as the highlight of the International Year of Youth. The overarching theme of the Meeting will be “Youth: Dialogue and Mutual Understanding”.

The event will be opened by Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary-General, Joseph Deiss, President of the General Assembly, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, former President of Brazil, and a youth speaker. The first day will include two consecutive interactive thematic panel discussions, which will be followed, on the 26th of July by two plenary meetings of the General Assembly.

The thematic panel discussions will address key issues affecting youth development:

Panel 1: Strengthening international cooperation regarding youth and enhancing dialogue, mutual understanding and active youth participation as indispensable elements of efforts towards achieving social integration, full employment and the eradication of poverty;
Panel 2: Challenges to youth development and opportunities for poverty eradication, employment and sustainable development.
The High-Level Meeting will also feature numerous side events which will enable youth organisations and partners to inform and exchange on their respective work.

Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General, is invited by the President of the General Assembly and will participate as a speaker in panel discussion 2. She will be accompanied by Pilar Álvarez-Laso, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences.

The results of the High-Level Meeting will be presented and discussed during the 7th UNESCO Youth Forum in October 2011.

The meeting will be webcasted live and there will be live-tweeting from the account @unyouthyear on both the 25 and 26 July, using the hashtag #youth11. The link to the webcast will be shared on Monday morning on the UN Youth Year Facebook and Twitter channels. UNESCO’s Twitter account @unescoNOW will retweet selected posts from the High Level Meeting.

22.07.2011
Source: Social and Human Sciences Sector

Women against Violence

Up to 70% of women experience violence in their lifetime. This is intolerable. Violence against Women can, and must, be stopped.

Contribute to fight this scourge by joining the United Nations and create a newspaper ad that says “No to Violence against Women”.

Under the banner Create4theUN, we are, once again, reaching out to the European creative community, professionals and non-professionals, to invite you to participate in the 2011 European competition.

To engage European citizens we are working with UN Information Centres across Europe and with major newspapers in each country.

The three prizes have been donated by partners in three European countries: Spain, Italy and Portugal. The thirty short-listed entries will be sent to a jury of experts.

Urban arts and design youth competition

As part of its policy to engage young people in promoting socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities, UN-HABITAT is inviting youth worldwide to submit original artworks, digital designs and imagery envisioning their future cities. The artistic artworks will be under the theme “My Vision of an Ideal City”.

The International Urban Arts and Design Competition acknowledges and celebrates the contribution of visual arts and designs in sustainable urban development. The competition will showcase the diversity of future cities as envisioned by young people.


Who can take part in this competition ?

The Competition is open to youth from around the world under two categories:
Category 1 is open to individuals aged 15-24
Category 2 is open to individuals aged 25-34



The Award :

Four winners, two from the global north and two from the global south, will be awarded a cash prize of USD 500 each
Eight runners-up will be presented with a USD250 cash prize each

The winners and runners-up will also receive UN-HABITAT gift items and their works will be featured online on the UN-HABITAT website, the Global Youth Helpdesk and the Urban Gateway. The winning entries will also be displayed at exhibitions during UN-HABITAT’s events.


How do you take part ?
1. Go to the UN-HABITAT website at www.unhabitat.org/urbanarts and complete the online form with your personal details provide a brief description of the art or design work you will be sending.
2. Once you have completed the form, send us soft copies of your art or design work to urbanarts@unhabitat.org. These may be digital designs, scans or photographs of your work. Your work should depict your vision of an ideal city and may be a computer design or an artistic impression of your future city.

3. Acceptable formats include JPEG, PDF.

4. If you are shortlisted, you will be subsequently asked to send your original works with instructions on where and how to submit these.



Selection Process :

In selecting the winners the jury will be looking for originality, creativity and visual appeal. The jury will also be looking for relevance to the theme of an ideal city including features of socially, environmentally and economically sustainable cities.

The International Year of Youth (IYY) Strategy Partners

Dear Friends,

In the run up to the International Youth Day and during the HLM on Youth taking place in New York next week, the International Year of Youth Strategy Partners are launching the campaign: COMMIT: Put Youth at the Heart of Development

A petition has been set up for young people from across the world to sign their name in support of the call to action below. Please encourage young people from your networks and organizations to 'like' the campaign Facebook fan-page and sign the petition, which can be found here.

The International Year of Youth (IYY) Strategy Partners
The Youth Coalition, Advocates for Youth, Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS, International Planned Parenthood Federation, YouAct, Y-PEER

World Urban Campaign

UN-HABITAT, the United Nations agency for human settlements, helps the urban poor by bridging the urban divides and transforming cities to cleaner, greener, safer, smarter and more equitable places with better opportunities where everyone can live in dignity. UN-HABITAT works with organizations at every level, including all spheres of government, civil society and the private sector to help build, manage, plan and finance sustainable urban development.

The World Urban Campaign is a new tool in this quest and it seeks to ensure that the world stays alert to the problems of rapid urbanization and all its ramifications, especially in the developing countries. The campaign is also intended to promote learning from one another and emphasize how we have and will encourage sustainable development in urban places.

We made it BIG in Amasya, Turkey

WHEN? WHAT? WHERE?

From 04.07.2011. – 11.07.2011. two volunteers from PRAXIS - Benjamin VIENNE & Elina EGLITE participated in a Youth Exchange program "We Are The World For Future" in Amasya, Turkey. Participants from six countries - Turkey, Romania, Hungary, Greece, Lituania and Poland - gave their contribution to aid works that can be done by European countries to people or countries that need help.

HOW IT ALL STARTED?

Call from our EVS mentor in Greece at 9:00am: "Guys, I have good news – would you like to go to Turkey next week to participate in a project "We Are The World For Future””? And everything else was like in a dream – too fast and too good to be true. But we could handle the situation pretty easy – set up a meeting with other Greek participants (Dimitra, Artemis and our team leader Georgios), talked through things what must be done before our arrival to Turkey and discused our added value to the project.

WE ARE IN AMASYA, FINALLY!

Despite some inconveniences in Thessaloniki airport and muck-up with airplane tickets, in last minutes we finally managed to take off and land in our dream: Turkey... First people we met was Lituanians who welcomed us and involved in ice-braking activities.

WOW! We were in Turkey and enjoyed every single minute: common breakfast, rides to most beautiful places in Amasya, intercultural nights, common swimming activities, volleyball match, picnic near brilliant green Borabay lake, outdoor games, open roof buss, most unique separating night and last but not least – project activities.

WHY YOUTH EXCHANGE?

It’s such a great way to meet new people, share experiences, practice different language skills, try out how good you are out of your comfort zone, find out about different culures and eventually – it’s the best, most proactive and most valuable way to spent your free days out of your hometown.

DREAM BIG

For us it was Amasya in Turkey. What could be your destination? It all can come true, I mean – why not?

For more information visit www.praxisgreece.org

Youth Exchange - Amasya

From 4/7/11 to 11/7/11 two volunteers from Praxis - Benjamin VIENNE & Elina EGLITE participated in a Youth Exchange programm "We Are The World For Future" in Amasya, Turkey.
Participants from 6 countries - Turkey, Romania, Hungary, Greece, Lituania and Poland - gave their contribution to aid works that can be done by European countries to people or countries that need help.

Take look, how it all was done!

World Summit Youth Award

The WSYA selects and promotes best practice in e-Content. It demonstrates young people's potential to create outstanding digital contents and serves as a platform for people from all UN member states to work together in the efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

7 Billion is an opportunity

There are problems that can, and must, be solved. As an individual, you can play a key role in creating a sustainable world characterized by balance and peace. You are part of a big, interconnected community where actions taken in one country or region can have an immediate impact on the other parts of the globe.

Refugees in Greece

Refugees in Greece