YEE External Relations Officer address the Statement by Youth Representatives at the UN 75th Anniversary Plenary

“When Brazil is in flames, when Sudan is underwater, when the largest iceberg has just broken off the Greenland shelf, what world are you leaving us?” These words are part of the powerful speech of our YEE External Relations Officer, Nathan, which he addressed during the Statement by Youth Representatives at the High Level Meeting to Commemorate the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the United Nations on 21 September. 

UN Member States agreed to hold a high-level event on 21 September to mark the UN’s 75th anniversary, and to adopt a forward-looking political declaration which will be negotiated through an intergovernmental process on: “The future we want, the United Nations we need: reaffirming our collective commitment to multilateralism”. The Declaration on the Commemoration of the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the United Nations was adopted at the high-level meeting. Part of this meeting´s opening plenary was dedicated to the Statement by Youth Representatives from all over the world. Nathan, alongside three other Youth Representatives, Ms. Akosua Adubea Agyepong from Ghana, Sharifah Norizah from Malaysia, N. Charles Hamilton from the Bahamas, addressed the need for a system change. 

“The problem is not the lack of ideas and solutions but the international community’s love for models that have proven insufficient. We need system change“, said Nathan. The problem is not the lack of ideas and solutions, he said, but the international community’s love for models that have proven insufficient.  Stressing the need to look beyond gross domestic product (GDP) and shift from models that are obsessed with infinite economic growth, he noted that inequality has reached intolerable dimensions.  After this pandemic, the world needs to build back not only better, but differently.  Nature is the single most advanced technology, he stressed, adding that leadership must come from local communities.  “Trust your people, trust your youth,” he said. 

Watch the full Statement by Youth Representatives here.