2015 International Youth Day Message
From Ahmed Adamu
Chairperson,
Commonwealth Youth Council
Today is the 2015 international Youth Day, and like every year on 12th of August, the world celebrate and reflect on the role of young people in sustainable development, and also discuss about issues that concern them. This year’s international youth day theme is “Youth Civic Engagement”. This theme is very important for us, the young people, as the world population is becoming younger in every generation, the participation of more young people in nation building and citizenship awareness is imperative. In the wake of youth apathy in political and civic life, this day will open discussions and debate on how to ensure improved youth civic mindedness, voter turnout, confidence in government institutions and democracy as well as knowledge of history and civic rights.
There are still some young people out there who do not care about the values of democracy, human rights and justice, and we have to discuss why and how we can provide civic education to these young people. The young people would have to lead in addressing our own issues, and I tasked all the youth leaders around the world to make civic education a number one priority in their programmes.
Civic Education can be formal or informal, and should be geared toward making young people productive citizens, and educating them on how to live and contribute to the modern society. The young people in the Commonwealth have debated a possible link between extremist ideology and civic education, and agreed that youth participation in decision making at all levels and civic education contributes to better development outcomes and peacefulness of our societies.
That is why, one of the key priorities of the Commonwealth Youth Council is youth participation in democracy and governance.
As we celebrate this day, there are still some young people who do not exercise their political franchise due to so many diverse reasons, many feel that their votes in public elections do not count, some lack understanding of how the system works and lack interest in politics or feeling that leaders had failed to meet expectations in the past etc.
To ensure proper civic engagement and participation of young people, the government must take measures and provide adequate resources toward civic education especially in rural communities. As the world is about to enact new global policy priorities, youth civic engagement and participation should be accorded an utmost priority.
Education is one of the key recommendation for ensuring youth civic engagement. Human rights, justice and democracy are values that need to be unpacked and explained, and that is why we promote and support basic human rights and civic education in the school curriculums.
The Commonwealth Youth Council is also celebrating the young people who are doing excellent jobs in ensuring youth civic engagement through a book publication we called “Commonwealth Young Achievers Book”, we have so far received wonderful profiles of active young people and the book will be published soon. It will serve as the monument and celebration of the great job young people are doing in civic engagements around the Commonwealth, so as to encourage and inspire other young people.
Youth voices especially regional and national youth councils need to be institutionalised and made independent, and there should be a mechanism to involve young people in decision making processes, so that young people could fulfil their civic and democratic rights.
In our effort to ensure active youth civic engagement in the Commonwealth, the themes for the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Forum to be held in Malta are centred around civic engagement of the young people, and these bordered around Participation of young people in Economic, Social, political and environmental sustainability in their societies. We call on young people in the Commonwealth to actively contribute to discussion on these agendas and come up with decisive recommendations for the heads of governments’ consideration in the 2015 CHOGM.
We wish you a happy international youth day celebration
Thank you
From Ahmed Adamu
Chairperson,
Commonwealth Youth Council
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| DR. AHMED ADAMU, CHAIRPERSON, COMMONWEALTH YOUTH COUNCIL |
Today is the 2015 international Youth Day, and like every year on 12th of August, the world celebrate and reflect on the role of young people in sustainable development, and also discuss about issues that concern them. This year’s international youth day theme is “Youth Civic Engagement”. This theme is very important for us, the young people, as the world population is becoming younger in every generation, the participation of more young people in nation building and citizenship awareness is imperative. In the wake of youth apathy in political and civic life, this day will open discussions and debate on how to ensure improved youth civic mindedness, voter turnout, confidence in government institutions and democracy as well as knowledge of history and civic rights.
There are still some young people out there who do not care about the values of democracy, human rights and justice, and we have to discuss why and how we can provide civic education to these young people. The young people would have to lead in addressing our own issues, and I tasked all the youth leaders around the world to make civic education a number one priority in their programmes.
Civic Education can be formal or informal, and should be geared toward making young people productive citizens, and educating them on how to live and contribute to the modern society. The young people in the Commonwealth have debated a possible link between extremist ideology and civic education, and agreed that youth participation in decision making at all levels and civic education contributes to better development outcomes and peacefulness of our societies.
That is why, one of the key priorities of the Commonwealth Youth Council is youth participation in democracy and governance.
As we celebrate this day, there are still some young people who do not exercise their political franchise due to so many diverse reasons, many feel that their votes in public elections do not count, some lack understanding of how the system works and lack interest in politics or feeling that leaders had failed to meet expectations in the past etc.
To ensure proper civic engagement and participation of young people, the government must take measures and provide adequate resources toward civic education especially in rural communities. As the world is about to enact new global policy priorities, youth civic engagement and participation should be accorded an utmost priority.
Education is one of the key recommendation for ensuring youth civic engagement. Human rights, justice and democracy are values that need to be unpacked and explained, and that is why we promote and support basic human rights and civic education in the school curriculums.
The Commonwealth Youth Council is also celebrating the young people who are doing excellent jobs in ensuring youth civic engagement through a book publication we called “Commonwealth Young Achievers Book”, we have so far received wonderful profiles of active young people and the book will be published soon. It will serve as the monument and celebration of the great job young people are doing in civic engagements around the Commonwealth, so as to encourage and inspire other young people.
Youth voices especially regional and national youth councils need to be institutionalised and made independent, and there should be a mechanism to involve young people in decision making processes, so that young people could fulfil their civic and democratic rights.
In our effort to ensure active youth civic engagement in the Commonwealth, the themes for the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Forum to be held in Malta are centred around civic engagement of the young people, and these bordered around Participation of young people in Economic, Social, political and environmental sustainability in their societies. We call on young people in the Commonwealth to actively contribute to discussion on these agendas and come up with decisive recommendations for the heads of governments’ consideration in the 2015 CHOGM.
We wish you a happy international youth day celebration
Thank you
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