Youth Forum - Third Committee, General Assembly, 81st session

So a very, very warm welcome. I'm very conscious that a number of colleagues will be trying to get through security and we'll probably see some people come in a little bit later as the course of the meeting gets underway. But in order to make the most of the time available to us, I think it's important that we start. First of all, let me introduce myself. James Larsen, I'm the Australian Permanent Representative. here in New York, and I've been here for three or so years, and we have, of course, the great honor to be chair of the Third Committee for the 81st session of the General Assembly. And from an Australian perspective, I can say that the Third Committee and human rights more broadly is just such a core part of our commitment to the multilateral system. Right from the very beginning, When we were involved in the negotiation of the Charter and throughout the 80 or so years history of the United Nations, Australia has been a very, very strong and firm proponent of this committee and the work that this committee does. And so I thank you very much for joining us this morning. And I also want to say how fantastic it's been. I recognize a number of faces from the statements that have been made over the last several days, how fantastic it is actually to have youth delegates representing their countries and making statements. I love the fact that on occasions you have you share, you share the statements between two or so youth representatives and in the absence of youth, it's not at all clear to me that we can have useful conversations in the United Nations, because if we don't have young people invested in the multilateral system, if we don't have young people invested in what we're doing here, we're missing a critical, critical part of the conversation. And the only way to address that, I think, is to make sure that you as individuals are present in the room. That's why when it was proposed that we have this youth session, which of course is not a formal meeting of the committee, but is nevertheless a very important part of this year's program, I immediately said yes. And I can't imagine a future in which any chair would not want to have a gathering like this. As with any UN process, there will always be far more speakers and far more positions than there is time to hear. So we have to be tough on timing, and it is always possible that not every speaker who wants to speak will be able to. But we will do our very best to be as efficient and effective as we possibly can with a view to making sure that as many amongst you get an opportunity to speak. I also know that some of the issues that, uh, uh, we will have, uh, in the discussion today, uh, they're contested issues, there will often be very different perspectives on aspects. So one of the important things I would ask all of us to bear in mind is that we are here to listen to different perspectives. That does not mean we necessarily agree with every view that is shared, and it doesn't mean that everything that is said is necessarily a United Nations position or even an international position, but we do have the opportunity here, I think, to listen to a variety of different perspectives. And I would ask all of us to do so in the spirit of exchanging views, in a spirit of courtesy, in a spirit of collaboration, and in the spirit of understanding that the very first responsibility that we all have as human beings working collectively is to listen to others and to listen to what others have to say. And we don't have to agree, we don't have to understand, but it is very important. Sorry, big plan. We don't have to agree, we don't have to commit to positions, but it is very important that we honour the obligation to listen respectfully and commit to that. Now, I think the purpose of today's conversation is to talk about the future of multilateralism. And I can't begin to do that without first acknowledging the amazing work done by the secretariat and my colleague here, Ziad, who's secretary of this committee. But all of you know, of course, the UN is under immense pressure. the amount of time that we have for our debates, the type of processes that we're engaging in, they are all under very, very strict review in terms of how much it costs, how effective are the outcomes, are we doing things that make a difference? They're all the right questions to ask and they're questions that every single one of you as a youth delegate should be asking because no system is perfect and especially a system that's been in place for 80 years or so absolutely offers the potential for reform, change, doing things differently. But in that context, I think we should recognize the incredibly hard work done by our secretariat, whose job it is to manage existing systems, processes, and arrangements while being buffeted by endless talk about why they should be changing, but before anybody's actually agreed to what changes they want. So I think we should take that as a shout out to the Secretariat. When I reflect on what we're trying to do in the Third Committee, one of the things which is very important, I think, for all of us, but it's very important to me, is the fact that we have this debate at the very centre of the global system, rapporteurs from all around the world, resolutions negotiated about either themes or situations of concern to the global community. And the question to ask, of course, for all of us, the question to ask is, are we making a sufficient difference on the ground? Are we making a sufficient difference in terms of outcomes for the people who we care about? And with great respect for everybody in this room. The people we care about aren't the people, the diplomats in New York. They're not the people who are living the largely comfortable lives of certainly the community that I come from. We are thinking about those living in very, very, very complicated circumstances in many, many different locations, living through war, living through civil strife, living in circumstances where their fundamental rights may not be respected, living in circumstances where their opportunities, economic, or opportunities for freedom of speech are challenged in one way or another. And so our job here in New York, I think, is very much to think about how can we make a difference on the ground to those who matter. And that's what I think we should be thinking about when we had this conversation about what is the future of multilateralism and what I would really urge you as youth to be thinking about in terms of what is the multilateral system delivering to people on the ground in our communities. One of the issues which, of course, is the forefront of thinking, the sustainable development goals and the question of what the 2030 timeline means in that space and how we take those goals forward. If I can be allowed a personal reflection, I think one of the challenges of the Sustainable Development Goals is we set incredibly, incredibly ambitious goals, but that highest level of ambition has not been realized. But I think we should be really mindful of the successes of the system and the changes that have been brought as a consequence of setting those ambitions, ambitious targets. And so as we go towards 2030 and we look forward to reflecting on what the next period looks like and how we should be coalescing around objectives and targets for that next period, I think we need to be really mindful of the fact that, yes, we are not perfect. Yes, there are things that we could do collectively better. There are things that individual member states could do better. But as a community and as a system, an enormous amount of good has been achieved. I think what my encouragement for you today would be is bring your energy, bring your enthusiasm, but also bring the willingness to listen, the willingness to hear other perspectives, and a commitment to engage collaboratively and courteously amongst ourselves. And with that, I'm contemplating a very, very successful session. With those comments, I want to thank you very much for so politely listening to me. We've got a couple of speakers who are on the desk with us here today. And the first speaker for today's session is Mr. Hamza Arabi, Youth Advocate from Sudan, Children and Youth International. And I invite you, Mr. Arabi, to make a statement. Thank you.

Yes, one, two. Hello. Good morning, everyone. Salaam alaikum. It means peace be upon you. As a child in Darfur, my memories were not peaceful playground, but of the terror of conflict, dodging violence that aimed to strip my peoples their humanity, the land, and the future. Before my teenage, I learned that for marginalized communities, existence is a resistance. The childhood did not break me. It forged my resolve in 2019, alongside millions of courageous young Sudanese, I helped lead peaceful revolution that 30 years of dictatorship. We filled the streets with but our voices, our unity, and unshakable demand for freedom, justice, and peace. So when I speak to you today, I do not speak from academic theory or policy beliefs. I speak as a survivor of state-sponsored atrocities and as a leader of peaceful revolution. I carry every child, person, or young person in Sudan and across the world's conflict zones who is living under skies torn apart by war, whose targeted practice of oppression, yet still dare to dream of democracy. We are not victims waiting for international pity. We are the architects of peace, the guardians of justice, and the living proof that no tyranny can forever suppress the human spirit. Now let us ensure this floor reflects that power. We are living in a moment of unprecedented global intersecting crisis. From the battlegrounds of post-conflicts, reconstruction to the digital frontiers where artificial intelligence will ease the bridge inequality. Young people are not waiting to be rescued. They're already doing the work. In the darkest hours, when systems fail, It is youth who organize relief or who establish community hubs for learning, who bridge divides and who stand on the front lines demanding democratic accountability. Yet too often, young people, especially those from marginalized, indigenous and conflict-affected backgrounds, are invited to these historic halls as mere decoration of diversity. We are brought in to share our pain, applauded for our resilience, and then sent home while decisions about our future are made in closed rooms without us. Let me be clear. Resilience is not a license for the international community to shrink its obligations. We do not want to be resilient forever. We want structural change, we want peace, we want seats at the decision-making table, where our survival is not treated as a policy debate. As we launch this forum today and as we draft our collective youth position paper, we must shift our symbolic inclusion to authentic power sharing. To the member states and the United Nations system in the room, Number one, stop treating youth as passive beneficiaries. Fund youth-led grassroots initiatives directly, particularly those operating in conflict-affected regions and marginalized communities where every dollar saves lives. Number two, protect space. Young peacebuilders and advocates cannot reshape the world if speaking the truth to power puts their lives and freedom at risk. Number three, ensure ethical technology and governance as emerging technologies like AI redefine our global economy and governance. Ensure marginalized youth are co-architects of these systems so tech serves as a tool for liberation rather than surveillance and bias. To my fellow youth delegates, as we engage in this interactive dialogue today and mobilize youth under this UNGA Third Committee, do not dilute your truth, do not soften your demand for justice to make it comfortable for diplomatic decorum. The position paper we craft today must not be another document that gathers dust on a shelf. It must be unyielding mandate written in the collective voices of millions who refuse to be forgotten. As we know, more than 2.6 billion people around the world are marginalized in the globe, and we are here all representing them. We are not here just having beautiful sessions and go home and taking pictures. So we are here to be the voice for the voiceless, and we are here to present those who are absent and those marginalized communities and areas in the world. We are the living answer to our ancestors' prayers, and we are the guardians of the generations yet to come. Let us turn this room into a forge for real systemic action. Thank you.

Thank you very much indeed. Now I invite, we have online, I believe, Ms. Rubina Adhikari, I hope I said that correctly, youth advocate from Nepal and South Asia Institute of Advanced Studies to deliver a statement. Ms. Adhikari, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. I hope I'm audible.

You are perfect.

Yes, thank you. So thank you, Chair. Good morning to everyone in New York and good evening from Kathmandu, Nepal. I'm Rubina Adhikari, a researcher at the South Asia Institute of Advanced Studies in Nepal. Most of my work focuses on climate change and migration, and as well as on the relational approaches to forestry. Thank you very much for the invitation. A session like this is a reminder that even from a distance, I'm able to join and contribute. And I hope the same openness carries into policies and into the outcome of this event as As many of you should be aware, unfortunately, Nepal has been through a devastating period for some time. These disasters are a reminder that a crisis does not look for borders and it does not ask who is responsible for it. When it comes, it sweeps away lives and everything else, regardless of its nationality, ethnicity or gender. It makes me wonder why disasters do not discriminate when so much else around us does. On the 26th of August, a glacier collapse high in the mountains sent a flash flood down into the villages below. While that turmoil was still with us, four days of continuous rain at the end of the September caused one of the Nepal's major rivers to flood, displacing around 1500 more people and sweeping away a meager breeze. Because I primarily work around these themes, these are not distant events to me. They are the question I study happening in my own country to people who now have to decide whether to rebuild or to move. Even now, around a dozen settlements along the same area face the risk of sudden flooding from landslides and geisha hazards upstream. And the exposure has not yet been fully assessed. The next flood is already a planning problem. With the SDG Summit next year and the review of the pact for the future ahead, this session is a chance to get these issues into the Committee's work early. I hope today's discussion will push for a few things. First, that this Committee treats climate-related displacement and mobility as social development issues in its resolutions. not only as environmental one. Second, to make sure that the finance created for such disaster actually reaches the communities it is meant for and that dispersing it is made as easy as pleasing for them. Third, that young people from mountainous countries and least developed countries are brought into these processes before a disaster, not only to describe it afterwards. For families swept up in these unforcing events, the future of multilateralism is a practical question. It is about whether supports arrive before the next similar event and what we actually do to keep it from happening again. With this, thank you very much for the invitation again, and I look forward to hearing from you all today. Thank you.

So thank you so much indeed for that contribution. Being mindful of time, I'm going to skip now straight to two panel segments. No, I'm not going to skip the two panel segments. I'm going to invite Veronica Brown, who's the coordinator of the Women's Major Group, to deliver a statement. My apologies for skipping over you. I wasn't trying to cancel you, but please, go ahead.

Thank you so much, Chair. And Good morning, everyone, secretariat and colleagues. It's a real pleasure to join you today to help open the second annual Third Committee Youth Forum. The Third Committee of the General Assembly, as you know, occupies a central place in the normative architecture of the United Nations, and it is one of the spaces where member states can collectively define what our commitments to human rights, equality, and dignity mean. And that makes this space particularly important at this moment. We're living through a period of profound backlash and rollback around the world's anti-rights and anti-democratic forces are actively seeking to erode hard-won protections and to weaken the institutions that uphold them, including anti-democratic forces at the UN seeking to diminish the human rights and development pillars of this institution. This is why at precisely this moment, we need to defend and strengthen the human rights and development pillars of the UN. But defending the institutions, of course, cannot mean defending the status quo. It also means how we make them more effective, not from a place of austerity, but from a place of true evidence-based reform and political responsibility. How we make them more accountable, more inclusive, and ultimately, as the Chair mentioned, more connected to people's lives. And this is why spaces like this matter so much. I want to thank and recognize the immense work that the Major Group for Children and Youth have done to continue to carve out spaces like this for young people and ultimately for civil society amid shrinking civic space around the world and at this institution. You must be meaningful, youth must be meaningfully included in shaping decisions, implementing, and of course, holding the institutions accountable for delivering on them. And that's the importance of you being here at Third Committee of the youth position paper and of all the actions that you'll take over the next couple of days and the next weeks in order to influence this process. Too often, you know, resolutions are negotiated in New York without sufficient attention to then what happens next. As those of you who have done third committee before, you know the immense amount of work that goes into third committee negotiations, the overlapping resolutions, the rooms often filled with many stakeholders and the dialogues with special rapporteurs. It is a dense and a very intense process. But as you are here, It is really important that we focus on who will implement these commitments, on taking accountability of what resource will be required in order to implement these commitments, and to ensure that they reach communities. When mandate creation becomes disconnected from implementation, we risk turning incredibly important normative commitments into political signaling rather than the instruments for change. Civil society, and particularly you as young people, are vital to bridging that gap. We, as civil society, are often the ones translating these global commitments into national advocacy in your context, into community organizing, into service delivery, into monitoring and accountability. And we're the ones who can really tell whether what happens here translates to reality on the ground. This connection really is essential to the credibility of the United Nations, because, as you know, at a time when political fragmentation and growing mistrust in multilateralism, people need to be able to see and feel that multilateral cooperation is marking their daily lives, is making a difference in their day-to-day existence, in their rights and their opportunities, in their safety, their communities, and their future. So I hope that this forum is not just a place for you to speak, but as A place for you and all of us as civil society to actually shape policy, to challenge assumptions, to influence priorities, and to help us think seriously about how the commitments made in Third Committee can become live realities around the world. Ultimately, what we do here won't be measured by the amount of resolutions we adopt, but by what those commitments make possible in people's lives. Thank you, and thank you for inviting me to the Youth Forum.

It's great to have you here. Thank you very much for those remarks. Now we're going to move to two separate panel segments, each including a fireside chat followed by an interactive dialogue. And the thing I most look forward to is that, as you will all know by now, interactive dialogues in the UN context mean that they're not interactive at all. So please, I'm hoping that our youth can demonstrate what interactivity is. So I look forward to that. There are two topics for today's panels. The first is fostering intergenerational action for social development towards 2030 and beyond. And the second is reimagining the future of multilateralism, putting youth and communities at the center. A couple of practical issues. So participants in the room who wish to make comments or post questions are invited to press the microphone button on your console. It's the one which the little gray button with the voice symbol on it. Once the code, so do that once the co-moderators open the floor and participants joining virtually will be added to the list and interspersed with the discussion. And to allow as many voices as possible to be heard, interventions will be limited to two minutes. And for the awareness of everybody, the forum will be broadcast on social media using a hashtag, #3CYYouth. So I now invite the co-moderators and speakers for the first segment to take their seats on the podium. And the first segment will begin in a moment. Which means we can. I'm pausing for two minutes. I do exactly what the secretariat tells me. Okay, I apologize for that slight delay. So we're moving to our first panel, and in fact, our two moderators, Sameh Kanel and Yugratna Srivastava, are moderating for us today, and I will pass into your extremely competent hands. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Chair, for the floor. We are delighted to be here today and co-convene the second UNGA Third Committee Youth Forum. Thank you to the Chair, the Secretariat, the Member States, and all the young people and stakeholders joining us today in person and online. So we meet today at a time of interconnected crises: climate change, conflicts, rising inequalities, and rapid technological change. While multilateralism faces increasing pressure at a time of growing military expenditure, we continue to struggle to mobilize adequate resources the UN needs to deliver its mandates. These challenges directly affect whether young people can access education, decent work, healthcare, and social protection, and whether communities can live in safety and dignity. when confidence and multilateralism is being tested, the Third Committee sends an important signal about the UN's ability to adapt while remaining inclusive and responsive. Let me be clear. The Committee is the only universal platform for all member states to address social, humanitarian, and cultural issues, alongside human rights. How it engages young people, stakeholders, and communities affected by these issues is therefore central to its work. And very frankly, the relevance of the Third Committee, these conversations should happen in a universal foras just like this. Youth groups and youth organizations are already responding to them, whether that's on the ground or here in rooms like this, but often with very limited resources and within shrinking spaces for civil society engagement. I hand it now over to my co-moderator, Yugratna.

Thank you so much, Sameh. And as we kick off this panel, I want to reflect on the fact that over the past year, we have made recommendations on improvement of the working methods of the Third Committee, whether that is how the engagement of civil society and youth organizations can be enhanced in the work of the Third Committee, or the very substantive coherence, wherein the processes that are linked to the Committee, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the Youth Forum, the CSW, and others, how can their outcome documents and summaries actually feed into the resolutions of the Third Committee in a more clear and coherent way. We've also discussed and addressed how the Third Committee should serve as a platform for galvanizing voices of the stakeholders from a point of view of addressing systemic issues and barriers that still continue to remain unaddressed as we move towards the 2030 deadline. Having said that, with 2030 approaching, we need to connect our commitments with implementation. The Pact for the Future implementation of the SDGs and the Third Committee resolutions must reinforce each other and accelerate action. We need to also carry forward unfinished commitments and a strengthened connection between social development, rights, and peace. We also need to stop passing the buck when it comes to the reform of the international financial and trade architecture, which must operate in unison with the UN Charter. As we move towards SDG Summit and the deadline of 2030, we call for a process that comprehensively addresses systemic issues like debt and emerging issues like AI technology, governance, deep sea resource extraction, and much more. We hope that this forum is our avenue to bring these conversations together and identify what member states, UN entities, stakeholders, and youth organizations can advance through the platform that the committee provides in this year and into 2027. So we'll kick off this panel, which is focused on fostering intergenerational action for social development towards 2030 and beyond, which explores the intersection of youth and social and cultural issues under the third committee's remit and the action needed to advance this agenda. The way we'll run this segment is that we have a panel of four speakers, which will deliver some scene setting remarks, after which we will open the floor for interventions from member states and youth organizations and civil society organizations in consultative status with ECOSOC. If you're a member state or a civil society organization in consultative status with ECOSOC, please, you can request the floor by pressing the button on your podium next to your mic. So it is my pleasure to welcome the very first speaker that we have on our program, who is Mr. Charles Katonga. Director of the Director of the Division of the Social Development at UN DESA. Mr. Charles has previously led the very critical process of the World Social Summit in 2025. And one year down since the Social Summit happened, Mr. Charles, we'd be delighted to hear your views on the different themes that you're discussing in segment one.

Thank you very much, co-moderators. And thank you, Ambassador Larson and MGCY for convening this discussion and facilitating dialogue between member states and young people on intergenerational action and for inviting us to help set the scene. It is always a privilege and an honor to engage young people in these halls and to watch the energy that you bring to these discussions. Intergenerational action is fundamental to social development. It is not simply about bringing generations together, it is about combining their knowledge, experiences, and perspectives to shape more effective, inclusive and sustainable policies and building a society where all generations can thrive. This approach guides our work in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs and in the Division for Social Development, which I lead. We support Member States in advancing policies on youth, ageing, disabilities, families and social inclusion that respond to people's needs throughout their lives, while strengthening solidarity between generations. Young people are disproportionately affected by many of the structural inequalities that are addressed by the third committee. Barriers to education, decent work, social protection, housing and participation can have lasting consequences, not only for young people themselves, but for societies as a whole. At the same time, new challenges are emerging, and I offer three clusters of challenges for your attention. First, technological challenge, technological change, and artificial intelligence are transforming labor markets. Second, climate change, conflict, and displacement are disrupting lives and opportunities. And third, declining trust and social isolation are affecting well-being and social cohesion. DESA's recent research, including the 2025 World Social Report and the 2025 World Youth Report, shows how these trends reinforce one another, creating a cycle of insecurity, inequality, and declining trust. Young people often experience these pressures first and most acutely. This is why meaningful youth engagement is so important. We cannot effectively address today's challenges, rebuild trust, or achieve sustainable development without the active participation of young people. Pact for the Future and the Declaration on the Future Generations provide a framework for the type of intergovernmental, intergenerational solidarity and meaningful youth participation that we need. A framework most recently reinforced by the outcomes of the Second World Summit for Social Development held in Doha, Qatar last November. Through the Doha Political Declaration, member states reaffirmed the need to place inclusion and solidarity at the center of our development efforts. As we prepare for the 2027 SDG Summit, young people must be fully involved in identifying priorities, supporting implementation, and help to monitor progress. The 2027 ECOSOC Youth Forum will provide an important platform for young people to contribute directly to these discussions. Here in the Third Committee, Member States have an opportunity to strengthen the links between social development, human rights, and peace and security. three priorities deserve particular attention. First, strengthening social cohesion and trust. Second, promoting intergenerational solidarity and equity. And third, institutionalizing meaningful youth participation across policy making, implementation, and accountability processes. One concrete mechanism for advancing these priorities is the United Nations Youth Delegate Program, managed by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. By including young people as official members of national delegations, the programme enables direct youth participation in intergovernmental processes and helps ensure that policy discussions are informed by young people's perspectives and lived experiences. Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to engage with youth delegates on reports of the Secretary-General that I presented to the Third Committee. Their interventions were insightful and enriched the discussions among delegations and with representatives of the UN system. I encourage all member states that do not yet have a national youth delegate program to consider establishing one, and DESA stands ready to support those efforts. As we look towards and beyond 2030, we must ensure that young people's voices are not only heard, but reflected in the decisions that shape our common future. DESA remains committed to supporting member states in this effort, including through the UN Youth Delegate Program and our broader normative analytical and capacity development work on social development to deliver on the commitment that no one is left behind. I thank you.

Thank you so much, Charles. We'll now move to our second panelist, Dr. Katrina Bohem, who is the Deputy Executive Director for Programs and Assistant Secretary General at the UNFPA. Katrina, over to you.

Thank you very much. Young leaders, colleagues, it's so nice to be here with you today, and I want to thank the chair wholeheartedly for giving room to this session. You know, I should admit that I've only been with UNFPA and in New York for four weeks, joining from New Delhi, and so I'm still in a steep learning curve. I want to therefore thank all of you, the youth delegates from Sudan, the youth delegate from Nepal for their perspectives, and I look forward to listen to your questions and to the dialogue. So let me keep my remarks short and perhaps just take a few, you know, urgent priorities that I want to test with you and hear your thoughts on. You know, youth involvement and having youth at the table is, of course, absolutely critical for the UN Population Fund. Yet what we see is only 2.8% of parliamentarians are under the age of 30. And very often, exclusion goes much deeper than exclusion in just formal politics. Across 78 countries where we've collected data, 56% of married women only are empowered to make their own choices when it comes to whether they want to have sex, whether they want or are allowed to use contraception, and whether and what they can access in terms of health care. We also see that One in seven young people has -- have severe mental disorders. And while we have the most educated generation of youth that we've ever had in history, many face profound economic and social challenges. In our demographic future survey that we have conducted where we listen to more than 100,000 young people, For many of them, their choices when it comes to relationships, parenthood, or their future are not at all driven by their aspirations, but merely by economic insecurity, inequality, and lack of support systems around them. And of course, you've already said, and more than 260 million young people are unemployed and are deeply worried about their futures. So, you know, when we listen to these young people, and especially, of course, young girls, what we heard in terms of urgent priorities, just three things here that I want to test with you. First, you know, many of them said, we want to help shape and ensure the freedom to make our own choices. Every year, 12 million girls marry before they turn 18. Discriminatory laws, poverty, and harmful social norms prevent girls and young women to decide what they want and whom or whether they want to marry. Our work with UNICEF focuses very much on reaching girls and changing the life of girls. And we've reached more than 40 million marginalized girls in 12 countries over the past decade. But more needs to be done, and we need your help for that. Second, a lot of young women talked about the freedom to participate safely, and that especially also online. 82% of young people today are online, and that is a big opportunity to learn and speak up. But technology is also dangerous and provides new forms of harassment, abuse that can drive girls and young women out of public life. And the harm is very real. So we at UNFPA, with partners, UN Women and many others, are working on initiatives such as making all spaces safe to prevent all forms of harassment on digital forums. But also, we work on working with boys and men to change their attitudes about masculinity and about behaviors in online spaces. So again, let's work on this together. And third, resources to turn ideas into action. Before joining here, I was in charge of youth work at WHO. And so oftentimes I feel we just pay lip service to your real engagement. And it's easy to say you have a seat at the table when you don't get the resources that you need to actually make a difference. So, you know, I commit to work with all of you to bring more funding to youth generation and grassroots and women-led organizations for program delivery, but also for advocacy. Together with UNICEF, for example, in our child marriage program, we have supported in 2024, 1,400 youth-led and 133 women-led organizations. But as you know, the funding is scarce, and so we have to make sure that we maintain that support to all of you. So again, thanks for working with us on making sure that you have the resources to do what you need to do. So in a nutshell, what should guide our thinking towards 2030 and beyond 2030? Clearly, it has to be to bring young people into the design from the start and not at the beginning. It's important to me personally to give girls and young women a meaningful role in setting priorities and making decisions. But it's as important to ensure that the rights, safety, and bodily autonomy are not negotiable. And your leadership must be backed by political influence and resources. On all that, we hope to work with you. I thank you.

Thank you so much, Dr. Koenig. Kathryn, and also thank you for highlighting the work that the UNFPA has been doing and Major Group for Children and Youth has been very honored to have partnered both with DESA and UNFPA on various activities, including the ECOSOC Youth Forum that we co-organize with DESA and UNFPA on many different strands, including the work on the youth peace and security, this track on ICPD, gender, humanitarian, many, many other aspects, so we are grateful for the continuous support that both the agencies continue to provide to youth organizations. Next panelist that we have is Jonathan Lam, representing the Migration Youth and Children Platform, which is the designated youth constituency that works on the issues of migration across the UN system, primarily with the Global Compact of Migration, the GFMD, and the IOM. Jonathan, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair, distinguished delegates, fellow panelists and colleagues. My name is Jonathan Lam, and it's an honor today to join the discussion as the international representative on behalf of the Migration Youth and Children Platform, also known as MYCP. We are a global youth constituency working to advance the rights, protections, and leadership of children and young people on the move. When we discuss intergenerational action for social development, we must recognize that young people are not simply inheriting today's challenges. We are already experiencing their consequences, organizing within our communities and developing solutions. For young migrants, refugees and displaced children, these challenges are particularly urgent. Around the world, young people confront barriers to education. healthcare, decent work, and social protection. For those on the move, these inequalities are compounded by discrimination, restrictive migration policies, immigration detention, and family separation. These are not isolated migration challenges. They are questions of social development, human rights, and the human dignity that falls directly within the responsibility of the Third Committee. I also emphasize that migration is an intergenerational experience. Personally, as the son of Vietnamese refugees, my family's story is shaped by forced displacement and the search for refuge. Like countless young people from refugee, immigrant, and first-generation backgrounds, I understand that the consequences of displacement do not simply disappear once a family crosses a border. They continue and are carried across generations, shaping opportunities, belongings, and participation. But so does resilience, community leadership, and the determination to create a more just future. This is why intergenerational solidarity must extend beyond dialogue and translate into shared decision-making power and institutional accountability. The pact for the future and the declaration on future generations provide important opportunities to advance this vision. But as we approach 2030, commitment must translate into measurable improvements in the lives of young people. At MYCP, we are working to turn these commitments into action. We serve as a co-lead on the UN network on migration work streams on alternatives to immigration detention and access to basic services. We are also co-leading the Global Compact for Migration Family Unity Initiative, in technical discussions with member states to exchange best practices and encourage concrete commitments. This past year, we engaged in the International Migration Review Forum, also known as the IMRF, and were able to secure several achievements, including paragraph 51 in the progress declaration, which urges for alternatives to children detention. It is central to our work that we facilitate the meaningful participation of young people who live experiences, with lived experiences of migration in global policy and decision making forums. Through our youth innovation and leadership award, we also provide prize funding to grassroots initiatives developed by young people to respond to the needs of their own communities. These efforts demonstrate that young people are not merely stakeholders to be consulted. We are partners capable of shaping policies, mobilizing communities, and implementing solutions. From this experience, I would like to highlight three priorities for member states. First, we must institutionalize meaningful participation. Member states should require youth participation in relevant national consultations, UN processes, and particularly among young people with lived experiences of migration and displacement. Participation must be accessible. This means providing funding, interpretation, accessible accommodation, and travel support to remove barriers that exclude marginalized young people. And importantly, governments should report on how youth recommendations have influenced policy decisions. Participation without accessibility risks becoming tokenism. Second, we must strengthen rights-based and inclusive social protections. The promise to leave no one behind cannot be fulfilled while children and young people are excluded from essential services because of their migration status. These priorities reflect the work of my CP and the things that we have been advocating for and advancing with partners and member states, and they require sustainable political commitment. And finally, third, we must strengthen coordination across the United Nations pillars of peace and security sustainable development and human rights. Displacement is shaped by conflict, inequality, climate change, and human rights violations. These challenges cannot be issued in isolation. We call on UN country teams and humanitarian development, peace building, and human rights actors to incorporate displacement-related risks and protection needs in joint country assessments and planning. We also encourage encouraged shared indicators to measure progress on protection, access to service, and durable solutions with young migrants and displaced people directly involved in designing and reviewing these responses. As we look towards 2027 and the next SDG Summit, these measures can help translate international commitments into coordinated, measurable action. Distinguished delegates, intergenerational partnerships cannot be a relationship in which one generation makes decisions and another is merely invited to respond. It must be built on mutual respect, shared responsibility, and the recognition that young people are already leading change. We cannot build an inclusive future while excluding those with lived experiences of consequences of today's decisions. The Migration Youth and Children Platform stands ready to work alongside member states, UN entities, and civil society partners to advance these recommendations and to ensure that young migrants, refugees, and displaced people are not only included in our vision of the future, but empowered to shape it. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Jonathan, for those reflection, including on highlighting the importance of countering the tokenism of young people. Now we'll move to the last representative on the panel, Dr. Ali Jelani, who is a member of the advisory group of APRSEM, which is the Asia Pacific Regional CSO Engagement Mechanism, and also co-chair of the Karachi Research Chair at the Greenwich University, Karachi, Pakistan, joining us online. Ali, the floor is yours.

I hope I'm audible.

Yes, please proceed.

Thank you, moderators. Excellencies, colleagues, and young people. In the backdrop of multidimensional crises of climate, conflicts, costs of living, debt, and inequalities, The most concerning remains that of the fragmenting multilateralism with visible cracks in its foundational principles of sovereign equality, rule of law, shared values, and responsibility. The business as usual pattern continues across negotiation outcomes in the absence of unfulfilled commitments on ODA, amounting to over 6 trillion, while the focus is being diverted to blended financing and diversified sources that might cement corporate capture on one hand and exacerbate debt distress for the developing countries on the other. Meanwhile, the calls for reparation, loss and damage, debt resolution and tax justice remain mostly unanswered as casualties of consensus across negotiation outcomes. Parallelly, the reform of the international financial and trade architecture continues to be blocked by the IFIs while democratizing global governance remains a pipe dream for the global South. Moreover, it is compounded by the failure to call out the increasing military expenditure, massive illicit financial flows, and shrinking civil society spaces around the world, the redress of all of which is absolutely critical to ensure cross-pillar complementarity for our shared future as we the people. The implementation of the Pact for the Future and of the commitments of financing for development and the World Summit on Social Development are avenues to realize that transformative potential in the lived realities of people on the ground. The post-2030 framework then, while we continue to strive for the achievement of the SDGs, must ensure a clear address of these systemic barriers that continue to impede development priorities for billions around the world. Moreover, Intergenerational justice will only be possible if we mobilize the political will and leadership necessary to right the historical wrongs across socio-cultural, politico-economic, environmental, and security dynamics to decolonize the hegemony of the empires of the past and those posing as empires of the future before it's too late for both people and the planet. Excellencies. The credibility of our multilateralism rests on our ability to walk the talk on transformation and to avoid falling prey to the fallacies of the neoliberal model that makes war profitable over peace, disease over well-being, disasters over safety, and dollars over dignity. The need for a bold, inclusive, and efficient multilateralism is absolutely critical, with the United Nations at the heart of it. to provide the political will, normative capacity, and leadership necessary for concrete policy action to deliver on its foundational promises as a turning point for life at large. Excellencies, let us ensure that the fragilities of our time, caused by the frailties of a few, do not compromise the promise of a fairer future for us all. I thank you, Chair.

Thank you so much, Ali, and thank you to all the panelists that we have heard from and for really setting the scene on some of the very important conversation, whether that is SRHR, rights of girls, meaningful youth engagement, follow-up to the social summit, and also the consideration on post-2030 agenda and systemic barriers that we heard towards the end. We now would like to invite participants to engage the presenters in an interactive discussion. Requests for floor, as we announced earlier, should be made by pressing the microphone button or raising a hand in case you're not near a microphone. We'd like to remind, but in this room, everybody has a microphone, so please use the microphone, not the hand. We'd like to remind the speakers that in order to give time to all those that are wishing to speak the opportunity to take the floor, the time limit of two minutes for interventions will be strictly applied. There'll be a timer on the screen through the muting of the microphones. We also would like to remind the speakers to kindly deliver their statement at a normal speaking speed so everybody can follow them. We will start first with the lead discussant for this segment, and we are very honored to have with us as lead discussant Janice Rodriguez, who is the UN Youth Delegate from Australia. Janice, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Chair, distinguished delegates, and fellow young people. I acknowledge the First Nations people of Australia, the oldest continuing cultures of the world and the traditional custodians from which I've travelled across and represent here today. I pay my respects to elders past and present and to the emerging leaders carrying culture, language and knowledge forward. I also pay my respects to the Lenape people whose lands we gather on today. My name is Janice Rodriguez and I'm honoured to address you, Australia's youth representative to the United Nations in 2026. Over the past year, I've crossed the length and breadth of Australia twice, listening to more than 5,600 young people whose voices I carry with me in this room today. I visited schools, youth centres and communities across our cities, regions and remote areas. And what I heard was not simply a list of issues, it was a feeling of hopelessness. Young people are watching peers their own age struggle to find a place to sleep. They are watching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children experience racism and be drawn into the criminal justice system far too early. They are watching our neighboring communities in Tuvalu and across the Pacific confront a climate crisis they did little to create. They are also watching children their own age being killed in conflicts around the world. For many young Australians, these conflicts are not distant. Australia is shaped by migration, and many young people have connections to places experiencing war and displacement. We see Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine through the same screens where we connect with our friends. We are taught that every human life has equal value, that every child has rights and that international law protects civilians. Yet young people are watching these situations, wondering if those principles are being ignored and asking how rights can be universal when their enjoyment appears so unequal. Young people do not feel hopeless because we don't care. We feel hopeless because we care about our world deeply and because we are paying attention. That is why I arrive here with a question I heard again and again across Australia. What does the United Nations actually do? And sometimes more bluntly, does the UN even do anything? I don't hear that as young people giving up on this institution. I hear it as young people asking whether the UN still has power to turn principles into action, to not just speak about peace, but to make that a reality across the world and in our own backyards. I've also seen what young people are capable of when we are valued. In the Northern Territory, for example, I met an 11-year-old First Nations boy who could speak eight Indigenous languages. Young people have immense knowledge, culture, and expertise to contribute. Across Australia, we are already organising, mobilising and creating change in our communities. We are doing our part. We are asking governments and institutions to do the same. If human rights are universal, we must defend them universally. If every child matters, we must protect every child. If international law matters, we must uphold it, even when it is difficult. We are not waiting to inherit a better world someday. We are ready to build it with you now. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Janice, for those powerful statement and sharing with us your views. I would now like to invite the distinguished representative of Save the Children. For the technical staff, it's seat number 100.

Hello.

Yeah, now it's working. Thank you, moderators, excellencies, colleagues. And thank you, everyone who spoke before me for setting the scene. Now I will not have to repeat what we are all aware of and witnessing from conflict and worse and humanitarian situation in Gaza, Sudan, Yemen, Ukraine, and DRC. funding cuts and everything that's questioning the multilateral credibility. Instead, I just want you to picture a child born in 2015, the year the world signed the SDGs. They are now 11, and in 2030 they will be 15. And if we decided to extend the goals to 2045, they will be 30, which means they spend their whole childhood inside a promise made the year they were born. Yet today, about a billion children lack basic needs and 251 million are out of school.

It is failing.

We have a UN80 initiative and reform undergoing, and we have a race for the new SG. and the route to the 2027 SDG Summit. And these children cannot afford us to keep dancing around these. I guess what I'm trying to say is the system doesn't lack tools, it lacks the political will to use them. And I guess we all know that there is a gap. a gap between commitment, financing, delivery and accountability.

So what would close this gap?

A new promise, maybe, but what about the promises we already made in 2015? So, in a nutshell, we need to protect a universal framework so whatever follows Agenda 2030, children do not lose what they already have on health, education and protection. And then to Ms. Katrina's point, we need to fund it, put financing and accountability at the center.

Thank you very much to the representative of Save the Children. I'd now like to give floor to the distinguished representative of Bulgaria.

Mr. Chair, distinguished delegates. For marginalized youth, inclusion must go beyond invitations.

It requires challenging discrimination.

Removing barriers to education and employment, and ensuring that their voices shape the policies affecting their communities. In 2015, Security Council Resolution 2250 recognized that youth marginalization undermines sustainable peace. Yet, exclusion persists, thus weakening the legitimacy and responsiveness of youth policy. Every young person, wherever they come from, must have a real seat at the table. Where space is lacking, we urge you to build a longer table and not a higher fence. Youth participation must reach beyond those already represented, value diverse experiences and turn consultation into action. The message is clear, nothing about us without us. And with that, I pass the floor to my co-delegate.

Mr. Chair, governments invest in creating employment opportunities, yet access to affordable housing remains a challenge for many young people. They promote healthy lifestyles while access to essential healthcare services remains limited in many communities. According to the International Labor Organization, one in five young people worldwide is expected to be outside employment, education, or training in 2026. This is why youth policy cannot be treated as a responsibility of a single ministry. It is horizontal by its very nature and must be reflected across every sector of government. We need stronger coordination between institutions, clear accountability, and independent national youth councils as partners in shaping.

Thank you, Bulgaria. I would now like to invite distinguished representative of SDG Youth Korea, who are online with us.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you so much, Chair and co-moderator.

My name is Jooyeong Kim, the founder and Secretary General of SDG Youth. The intergeneration action works in two directions. The young people growth by resembling the life of adults they respect. The role models in every field and adults must listen carefully to their voice. For the 2030 and the SDG Summit 2027, we offer three recommendations. The first, the mainstreaming intergeneration participation.

When UN entity review the approved program, we ask that the criteria.

Be included, or how different intergeneration will take part together in the speech of the declaration of future generation?

Second, invest in youth leading intergeneration project.

We call for more dedicated project support. for initiative in which young people take the lead and work side by side with older generation. The third, recognize the importance of the family. The intergenerational solidarity begins with the clear understanding of the family. the first place where the young learn from their elders and elders learn to listen. That is why our pathway begins with seed, the home. The young people follow the example we set. Let us set an example worth following and listen to the voice is raised.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, SDG Youth. And I also understand it's very late in where you were joining us, so thank you for joining at a very late time zone for you. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Italy.

Chair, fellow delegates, dear friends, I address you today as the Italian youth delegate to the United Nations with a heart full of hope and of responsibility. Every day here in these halls, 193 countries meet. They speak different languages, represent different histories, and sometimes hold profoundly different views. And yet, they come together. Isn't that in itself extraordinary? But sometimes I wonder, do we still remember why we are here? Francisco Goya once painted two men fighting a duel. They are so focused on defeating one another, they do not realize they are standing in quicksand and that by fighting each other, they are both destined to disappear. Are we sometimes doing the same? The challenges before us do not stop at borders. Peace, development, human rights cannot be pursued in isolation. They are different sides of the same future. We must face them together. And young people make a difference, can make a difference. I see it in the eyes of the young people I meet, the genuine desire to build together a more peaceful, inclusive, and sustainable future. My country, Italy, chose to make this commitment a constitutional principle. Article 11 of the Italian Constitution repudiates war as an instrument of offense and as a means of settling international disputes. What if we all truly considered peace the only possible option? Recently, I met the children of the Piccolo Coro dell'Antoniano, One of them wrote, "Peace is the only option. Peace can take us anywhere. War can only take us to one place." So peace is not one option among many. Peace is the only option. I thank you.

Thank you, Italy. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Women's Environment and Development Organization, speaking on behalf of the Women's Major Group. For the technical team, it's seat number 038.

Thank you for the floor once again. I'll keep it short. As you know, my name is Veronica Brown. I'm the coordinator of the Women's Major Group. The Women's Major Group, together with the Major Group for Children and Youth, are part of the Major Groups and Other Stakeholders mechanism, a vital part of the accountability structure of the UN system, and an example of what can be accomplished when rights holders are systematized into a process, in this case, the 2030 Agenda. As Dr. Caterina already mentioned, the debates taking place here are a vital part of the pathway towards post-2030. At a moment of profound backlash, the language that we discuss here matters enormously. We are seeing organized efforts to roll back rights on previously agreed commitments, including language that many of us had already assumed was settled, such as gender, care, and the rights of minorities. So what we defend or fail to defend here in these negotiations will affect the baselines we have tomorrow. because we begin negotiating what comes after the 2030 agenda this upcoming year in 2027 in the SDG Summit. There are a number of resolutions that will have a significant influence on what we are able to accomplish. One at CSW, the Commission on the Status of Women this year, this next year, and then what we will subsequently be able to influence in the SCG summit in 2027 on SRHR, on the rights of people with disability, SOGI, children in armed conflict, indigenous community, and more. We will draw from the normative frameworks that member states are building today, reaffirming and contesting right now. As young people, it is important that you follow and shape all of this, not only because you will inherit the next agenda, but because you are political actors in determining its normative foundations today. And as my colleague from the Migration and Youth and other colleagues have mentioned, it's important that this work is resourced and access and infrastructure are necessary to participate. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Cuba.

Thank you, Chair, and dear youth representative. It's always enriching to hear young people's views on how to tackle the main global challenges that lie ahead. I had not planned to speak today, but the moderators suggested an idea that we fully share. The continuous increase in global military spending is simply unacceptable. it reached $2.8 trillion in 2025, while global challenges such as hunger, poverty, sustainable development remain unaddressed. So a question comes to my mind, how much more could be achieved in terms of achieving the 2030 agenda and supporting youth rights if at least a portion of this exponential military spending were directed towards sustainable development? The main problem humanity faces today is not the lack of financial or technical resources, but a lack of real political will to advance the social development agenda. At the same time, the realization of the full potential of youth in developing countries continues to be hindered by unjust global structures. UCMs, inequalities, and limited access to financing and technology disproportionately affect young people and restrict their opportunities. Addressing these challenges requires genuine international cooperation and respect for the UN Charter. Investing in youth is investing in the future, but beyond investment, it requires trust in their capacity to lead, to innovate, and to transform. Cuba believes in youth and will continue advancing policies that place youth at the center of development. We will continue working with our partners to ensure that no young person is left behind. Thank you.

Thank you, Cuba. I now give the floor to distinguished representative of IMCS Pax Romana, who is joining us online from, I believe, Philippines.

Yeah, thank you, moderators, and greetings to everyone. I am William Nockrek, an indigenous youth from Bangladesh and the international president of Pax Romana, International Movement of Catholic Students. I'd like to share a few reflections from my experience working with youth, indigenous peoples and faith-based movements from grassroots to international spaces. First, many young people are already doing important work in their communities, defending human rights.

Supporting others and bringing people together.

But those from indigenous peoples, rural and marginalized communities often face Greater barriers to participating in national and international discussions, whether because of languages, resources or limited access to opportunities. Second, we need to look at what happens after young people are consulted. We have many forums and dialogues, but are the recommendations reflected in decisions? And do they have the support to put those ideas into practice? From my experience, youth movements and community networks are where much of this work actually happens. They need long-term support, opportunities to develop leadership and stronger connections with national and international institutions. As we discuss the future of multilateralism and our commitments towards 2030 and beyond, I would encourage Member States and UN agencies to work more closely with these existing networks, involve young people in implementation and create clearer ways to follow up on their recommendations. For me, the real question is not simply how young people participate in UN discussions, but what changes in their communities because they participated. Thank you very much for this opportunity.

Thank you, I'm CS Pax Romana. Now we give the floor to Distinguished Representative of Romania.

Honourable Chair, fellow youth delegates, the issue addressed by the Third Committee directly affects young people from inequality and decent work to social development. And these challenges are increasingly shaped by cross-cutting issues, including climate change and AI. Yet while these challenges are interconnected, our policies often address them separately. And we believe three changes are needed. The first one, to move from consultation to meaningful participation involving young people throughout the full policy cycle. The second, to close our accountability gap. When young people make recommendations, we need to know what happened to them, because participation without feedback doesn't build trust. Third, to invest in inclusive participation, strengthening local youth organization and ensuring that young people from different communities can access decision-making spaces. And as we look beyond 2030, the question is not whether young people belong at the table. We are already here. We are already acting. But it's whether institutions are ready to move towards sharing responsibility with us. And now I will give my floor to my fellow delegate. Thank you.

Thank you, honorable chair, excellencies, and fellow youth delegates and advocates. In our intervention on social development in the third committee, Romania highlighted that young people must be active partners in shaping policies, not merely their beneficiaries. As a computer science student, I am acutely aware that my generation is stepping into a labor market that algorithms are actively rewriting. We must urgently integrate comprehensive AI literacy and ethical debates into our civic education frameworks. Furthermore, intergenerational action requires treating youth employment as a matter of human dignity. We need a framework to bridge generational gaps and support an equitable transition in the job market. We have to invest fairly in our potential and include youth directly in governing the digital transition, ensuring a future shaped by technology remains driven by humanity. Thank you.

Thank you, Romania. I now give the floor to International Association of Youth and Students for Peace.

Thank you, co-moderators, distinguished delegates. My name is Jacob Navarro. I am originally from Venezuela, here representing the International Association of Youth and Students for Peace. Last week, with the MGCY, SDG 16 Global Youth Caucus, and the Universal Peace Federation, we held the youth-led Balkan International Youth Summit for Peace in Mitrovica in the Balkans. It's a city still divided between north and south. Over 140 young people from 52 countries took part, including 18 from both sides of the city. It was intergenerational by design. Representatives from ministries and institutions sat with young people to co-create solutions together. We asked why so many young people are leaving. The answers were about trust, fair hiring, and a missing culture of hope. As they put it, the grass isn't greener on the other side, it is greener where you water it. Young people brought conflicting political views, and those views belong in peace building. Peace building does not need us to agree, it needs us to disagree without losing respect for the person across from us. Peace education teaches that skill. Many programs teach how institutions work, few teach the inner and relational skills peace depends on. Capacity building must also run the other way. Institutions need to listen and share decision making. Our one ask for member states towards the 2027 SDG Summit, treat young people's decent work, mental health, and education as conflict prevention, and fund them for the long term. Short project grants are not enough. Trust and skills for peace takes years to build. One summit is an event. a summit that returns this relationship, so we will host it again next year. Peace and development cannot be handed down from one generation to the next. They have to be built together. Thank you.

Thank you, Iyoasie. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Libya.

I speak as a youth delegate of Libya and the first official participation of Libyan youth delegates. Young people are the backbone of Libyan society. They are also the ones who struggle most to move from education to work and from work to stability. That is why Libya, led by the Ministry of Youth and supported by the UN Youth Office, UNDP and UNFPA has engaged widely with Libyan civil society to develop the National Youth Strategy 2026-2031 through broad consultations with young men and women themselves. The strategy measures success by what actually changes in young people's lives, not by the number of activities learning that leads to work, work that leads to stability, and participation that has real influence.

We also launched for the first time a youth.

Peace and security coalition as a platform for young people to take part in peace building. Libya believes multilateralism works best when it supports national priorities rather than replacing them. A question to the panel, how can the UN system turn its support from scattered programs into joint action behind national youth strategies? Thank you.

Thank you, Libya. I'd now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the Inclusivity Project, representing the stakeholder group on communities discriminated on work and descent, who are joining us online.

Thank you, excellencies, distinguished delegates, fellow young people.

I speak today as a Roma.

Woman and as someone from a community discriminated on the basis of work and descent. We are more than 270 million people worldwide, yet our experiences remain largely invisible in global policy, data and decision making. For young people from the CWG communities, discrimination can begin early through unequal access to quality education and continuing to employment, housing, healthcare, political participation and justice. For young women, these barriers can be compounded by gender discrimination, violence and economic exclusion.

But one of the most.

Important systemic barriers is that our experiences are still too often invisible in policies and data. If we are not counted, our realities are easier to overlook. If we are not at the table, our solutions are easier to ignore. Looking towards the committee session in 2027, member states have an opportunity to connect the human rights agenda with development, gender equality, peace and security, and meaningful youth participation.

For communities discriminated on the basis of work and descent, these pillars cannot be separated.

Discrimination affects our access to education, the descent work, health, political participation, and economic opportunity. This is why we need implementation that reaches communities at the grassroots level and meaningful youth participation throughout the process. For young people from the CDWD communities, cross-pillar complementary means connecting commitments on human rights with development, gender equality, education, descent work, and peace, and making sure that implementation is measurable and accountable. We need a future where young people from communities affected by inherited discrimination are trusted to help shape it. Thank you.

Thank you, the Inclusivity Project. I now give the floor to distinguished representative of Lesotho.

Thank you, Chair. On behalf of the Basotho nation, Lesotho wishes to make the following remarks. Lesotho welcomes this youth forum as an important platform for advancing meaningful youth participation in global decision making and sustainable development. As a country with a youth population, we recognize youth people as key drivers of innovations, social progress and economic youth. Despite ongoing efforts to promote education, skills development and entrepreneurship, youth unemployment remains a major challenge in Lesotho. Limited employment opportunities, skill mismatches, adequate access to finance, and climate-related vulnerabilities continue to affect many youth people, particularly young women and those in rural areas. In response, the government of Lesotho continues to invest in technical and vocational training, youth entrepreneurship, digital skills development, and programs that expand employment opportunities for the youth people. We therefore call the strength international cooperation and greater investment in youth employment, digital and vocational skills, entrepreneurship, and meaningful youth engagement in policymaking. As we advance towards the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, Lesotho remains committed to work with all parties to ensure that no young person is left behind. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Lesotho. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Israel.

Thank you. Distinguished Chair, dear colleagues, this has been a difficult week for us as we marked three years since October 7, one of the darkest days in Israel's history. We are grateful to everyone who asked us how we are doing this week. One of the central questions before us today is how the Pact for the Future can accelerate progress towards 2030. We believe part of the answer lies in connecting its commitment on science, technology, and innovation with the core social priorities of this committee. For young Israelis, innovation begins with concrete human questions. How can someone with a disability live more independently? How can a student continue learning when their educational is severely disrupted? And how can timely support reach young people struggling with their mental health?

These are fundamental questions about dignity, inclusion, and opportunity.

Science can help answer them when researchers, communities, and policymakers work together as true partners. And that is precisely where youth participation becomes essential. Young people should help identify the problem, design the response, and evaluate whether it actually works. Looking ahead, we propose partnerships linking young researchers and entrepreneurs with public institutions and local youth organizations.

Give us a defined social challenge, the tools to actually test the solution, and clear measures of who benefits.

We're eager to learn from you and happy to share our knowledge so we can build a better future together.

By bringing different experiences and perspective together, we can learn from one another, we can develop better solutions.

Young Israelis are happy to contribute to that, to exchange and build partnerships, and to improve, sorry, human lives.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you to the youth. I now give the floor to Distinguished Representative of Nigeria.

Hello. I am from Nigeria, and thank you for being here. I think I love art, because art gives us different perspective to understand many different things. And this translates to infrastructure. And for the longest time, I think we have focused on the infrastructure alone, and then undermining what is actually being done inside those infrastructures. And what am I saying in essence? There should be a balance between the interpretation and actually what is done inside the already established organization. For instance, education, which in many cases we focus on the structures and the buildings and the infrastructures as it may seem. why undermining the curriculum and what is being taught in those educational systems, which I think should be reformed in order to meet societal needs, especially the current generation and going forward into the ones that we are going into. And so do we have it in health, and so do we have it in climate finance, and of course, in social development. True multilateralism, how do we balance all the sectors to make sure that we meet or to make sure that we give value to one and then without undermining the other? Because it has been said that we all are all together, we are all connected in one way or the other. And if we give more attention to one and not balancing it with the other, and then we are not, I think.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much to the distinguished representative of Nigeria. As our session unfortunately comes to an end, I just have three main remarks in conclusion. So first, as an outcome of the session, we call upon all member states and the UN agencies to heed to the recommendations that are coming from this youth committee. Civil society were key partners in building momentum around and delivering the Pact for the Future, the Summit for the Future, and beyond. We need the same momentum as we move towards the 2030 deadline and even beyond that. Second, meaningful youth engagement is already happening. Third Committee Youth Forum, together with the ECOSOC Youth Forum, the largest youth convening in the UN system, is the most visible example of meaningful youth participation and engagement in multilateralism. We call upon all member states to ensure the highest level of ministerial participation at the upcoming youth forums. Third and finally, we are talking about development and sustainability in a world that is tearing apart, with armed conflict, with displaced people, with depriving people from basic human rights. Once again, we are reiterating the call for the importance of ending all conflicts around the world. Children and youth cannot and should not remain the casualties of mass industrial complexes. With this, we are concluding the first segment and handing it back to the chair.

Thank you very much, and I am so sorry that not everybody who wanted to speak had the opportunity to do so. I thank the co-moderators very much indeed for a beautifully moderated session, and thank you very much indeed to our panelists and all the contributors. Now we are going to reset the podium, am I correct? And so thank you very much for our contributors. That's enormously appreciated. We will pause for a moment, reset the podium, have our new podium representatives join us, and then we'll resume our session and move to the second panel. Thank you. Hello, how are you? Nice to... Yeah, lovely to have you here. Fantastic. Dear colleagues, dear colleagues, I would ask you to take your seats, please. I think our time is very tight, and so I want to give as many people... Dear colleagues. Thank you. Dear colleagues, our time is tight, and I want to give as many colleagues as possible an opportunity to contribute. This session is the Reimagining the Future of Multilateralism, putting youth and communities at the center. And I'm going to move straight to our moderator, Ms. Malet Zeleke Reddy. I hope I have pronounced your name correctly. Global focal point of the Global Youth Caucus for Decent Work, who will guide us in this session. Thank you very much indeed.

Thank you, Chair, for giving me the floor. Good morning, distinguished delegates, colleagues, speakers, and everyone joining us in the room and online. It's a pleasure to be here with you today for this important conversation on reimagining the future of multilateralism and putting young people and communities at the center. Thank you all for being here and for your continued commitments to to strengthen meaningful youth participation in the work of the United Nations. This segment will explore how meaningful youth and stakeholder engagement can strengthen trust in multilateral process and improve the implementation, follow-up and review of the global commitment and resolution linked to the work of the SERT committees. It will examine how we can strengthen the UN system. As a young person from Africa, from Ethiopia, and someone working on the decent work and sustainable economies, I believe this discussion must connect global commitments with realities young people in communities face every day. Decent work is not only about employment, it's about dignity, equal opportunities, social protection, and inclusive economic development. We must also address structural discrimination, including against communities discriminated on the basis of work and decent, who continue to face barriers to equal participation and economic opportunities. As a member of the steering committee of the ILO-led Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transition, MGCY, through the Global Youth Caucus on Decent Work and Sustainable Economies brings young people's perspective and priorities into the initiative. We aim to ensure that youth are not merely beneficiaries, but meaningful participants in shaping policies, advancing work, expanding social protection, and building inclusive, sustainable economies. At the institutional level, following the World Summit for Social Development, how we can strengthen the Commission of Social Development and improve coordination with other processes, including the Commission of Status of Women, Indigenous People, Mechanism and other social development forums. We should also consider lessons from transformation of the Commission on Sustainable Development into High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. Equally important is is the strength, the connection between these processes and the CERD Committee. Recommendations emerging from permanent forums, youth forums and other established mechanisms should have clear pathways into intergovernmental deliberations. Participation must lead into influence, and recommendations of young people and communities must have meaningful opportunities to inform decision and resolutions. Finally, we reflect on the UN80 initiative and effort to improve the search committee's working methods. We must consider how to strengthen the relation with OHCHR and create more meaningful space for youth and civil society organization. UN reform must be about more than efficiency. It must address structural inequalities in power asymmetries while strengthening human rights, peace, sustainable development, gender equality, and the right of indigenous people, and the meaningful participation of like major groups and other stakeholders. With that context, I am pleased to welcome our panelists to discuss how we can move from consultation to meaningful influence from the global commitment implementation. I'm very pleased to be joined by four colleagues who bring different perspective to this conversation. We have Sudo, Palakrishnan from the UN Youth Office who's joining us in person. We have Alanktra from Youth SPI Forum also joining us in person. We have Ali Mustafa from International Organization of Youth in person here. And Sarah Reza, UN Youth Delegate of Germany who's also invited here and with us in person. Thank you all for being with us. The first question would be for Sarah, let me begin with you. As a UN youth delegate, you bring important perspective on the relation between young people and member states. Youth delegate can serve as a bridge between young people's priorities and international decision making. From your perspective, what can a member state do differently to ensure that you young people's perspective meaningfully influence multilateral discussion, national policy making and implementation? Thank you. Perfect.

Thank you, moderator, excellencies, fellow youth delegates. I think my answer would be that we cannot build a different world with the same power structures that keep making the old one. And meaningful youth participation is one way to challenge those structures. And the good news is we already know that it works. It strengthens implementation, it builds trust, and makes policies more relevant. But maybe evidence alone does not capture why this matters. We're talking about a generation that is growing up watching the world struggle with crises that often cross every border while being told that multilateralism is our best way forward. If we truly want young people to believe in these institutions, we have to show them that what happens in rooms like this matters beyond these walls. And that means not only reaching young people, it means giving them a reason to believe in the system. And I say this not as an abstract argument. As Germany's UN Youth Delegate, I've had the privilege of meeting hundreds of young people across the country. I've met young people bringing communities together and creating spaces to talk about the issues that matter to them, whether that is mental health, international law, infrastructure, or even social injustice. And they may not have the badges, the titles, or the acronyms that we're using in these halls, but they're already putting into practice the very values we negotiate here.

And this is why I believe in my generation.

I believe things can be different, and not because I underestimate how difficult things are, but because I've seen what is already possible. So let me invite you to do the same. Go and meet the young people already doing the work in your own communities. Listen and learn from the people we are doing this for. And I promise you, you'll be surprised by a generation, our generation, that's already turning ideas into action. But I also want to be honest, neither I nor any other youth delegates can represent an entire generation. The UN Youth Delegate Program is an incredibly valuable way of bringing young people's perspectives into international decision-making. But who actually gets the chance to be here? The opportunity to shape global decisions should not depend on your privilege. Yet, your passport, whether you can obtain a visa, or whether you can afford to travel can determine whether your perspective ever reaches a room like this. And this is why we need to broaden and strengthen the UN Youth Delegate Program so that access to international decision-making is not limited to those who already have the means to get here. And that brings me back to this room. The third committee plays an important role in shaping commitments that are meant to make a difference in people's lives. But those commitments only matter if states are willing to deliver on them, including their commitments to meaningful youth participation. So we as youth delegates, we can bring our experiences, our expertise, and our perspectives to the table, but we alone cannot make participation meaningful on our own. Whether we're included in conversations, whether we get access to negotiations, and whether our contributions are taken seriously often depends on the choices of the missions sitting in this very room. So what we need is transparency about how to engage. We need a willingness to share power, and also the opportunity to shape negotiations while decisions are still being made. And that responsibility did not start with us. This institution was built by people who believed that cooperation was possible, even after humanity had given them every reason to doubt it. They built it anyway. So now it is our turn. We owe it to the people who are not in this room and to the generations who will come after us to make these institutions work. So yes, we have every reason to be critical. I know that. But we also have every reason to keep trying. So let's put the power we have to work, because after all, we're not at the United Nations to just witness history, but to be brave enough to shape it ourselves. Thank you.

Thank you, Sarah. I want to build on that because youth participation can look very different across countries. Some young people have established mechanism to engage with their government, while others have very limited access to decision-making space. That being said, I will pass the next question for Sida. We have seen important progress in strengthening youth participation across the UN system, but participation can mean many different things. from being consulted to being invited into the rooms to actually being, to actually having influence over decision.

Yeah, they're.

And thank you, Alandra. Okay. So from your perspective, what does meaningful youth participation -- let me know if you want me to repeat the question.

Yeah, finish your question.

Okay. From your perspective, what does a meaningful youth participation in the US STEM look like in practice, and where do you think we still have the biggest gaps?

Okay. Distinguished colleagues, member state representatives, and my dear young people. So delighted to be here from, I represent the Youth Office here, and I'm happy to respond to this question. The whole set of work that we do is around strengthening meaningful youth engagement in multilateral processes in the UN system. And so, you know, working with a range of stakeholders from member states to young people, to the national governments, to the UN system. So I wanted to talk about a little bit about the journey of meaningful youth engagement. You know, now I'm old, but I started when was several decades old, and this was several decades back on meaningful youth engagement. For a long time, principles of meaningful youth engagement has been etched in the history, you know, for decades. But how do you measure them? How do you actually see what is available, what is meaningful, what principle actually works, what is lagging behind, you know, so there was no measurement system before. So this was the first time that the UN's youth strategy came into being a few years back. It was rolled out in 2018 and with a group of young people, you know, this is, there are several of them in the room here who are part of shaping this for the first time. the measurement of the principles of meaningful youth engagement was actually set to a scale. It had red, yellow, green scoring in terms of measuring what actually has improved, what has not improved. And so that's where the journey started. And then the whole of the UN system now, from where we started in 2018 to where we are, we have 64 UN entities and all the UN country teams actually moving in into the strategy. So they all talk about working with and for youth and then what they actually do in terms of meaningful youth engagement is actually measured. I want to give you one data point. In 2018, the meaningful youth engagement, the number of or percentage of UN entities that were engaging youth in the five-year key cooperation framework documents was very less. But now, over period of time, it's really grown and it's almost 10 times that has changed, you know, in terms of how the country teams or the UN entities are engaging youth in shaping their key strategic documents. And this has, you know, this is very clearly a shift from where it started to where we've come. almost everywhere, at least half of the UN country teams and half of the UN entities have a youth advisory board or a group which actually represents the entire community coming from a diverse set of young people being on these boards to shape decisions, but also in terms of you know, what to do, what is the strategic positioning of the of the sustainable development agenda in the countries, how does young people take these things forward in the in the context. So this has seen a lot of improvement over a period of time and this is clearly there is a lot of data available for you to look at in the in the youth 2030 progress reports that we have, we launch every year, you know, what is system is lagging, what is not lagging. So having said that there is progress, it's not where we really want it to be. There are places, you know, youth engagement is not a free for all component. They, you know, time of young people needs to be remunerated, the resourced, there needs to be a clear linkage between the young people's recommendations to actually, what is being taken in those decisions as well, a full feedback loop that can help make the case of how young people have shaped the agendas. All of these can have a lot more work and shape, you know, in the coming years. And that's what we have the, we strengthen the Youth 2030 strategy further and launched the phase two last year. And this is something that is clearly a space that we will see where we are placing young people at the center of SDG acceleration in terms of UN support to the national governments to take things forward. I have two key other points that I want to link this up to. The Pact for the Future talks about the core principles of meaningful youth participation. In the same room several months back, earlier in the year, together with a range of member states, young people and UN system, we launched the core principles of meaningful youth engagement, again co-shaped with young people across the world. And this is a key instrument for us to, at all levels, including the third committee, which is already very progressive in terms of the youth forum and the youth forum to actually and other spaces in the in the different intergovernmental spaces to be looking to reflect back on what is happening. Does it do all the things that we are doing aligned to these core principles? And then how are we moving forward? The last point that I want to make is around around investing in youth-led solutions. There are several crises, several areas that really need to move forward or advance, and we are living in an age of conflicts and transformations. Young people have the ideas and solutions, and they need to be funded for them to be able to experiment, to bring forward the solutions, and to take them forward. And this is actually ingrained in the second component of the Pact for the Future, the Global Youth Investment Forum, which talks about you know, not only funding the youth programs and policies in countries, but also around youth engagement and investing in youth-led solutions. So this is also the key piece for us to be really pushing boundaries to be able to move the agenda forward and actually make youth engagement meaningful at all levels, at the global, regional, and the national and the local levels. Back to you, Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Suda, for this thoughtful insights, points, and for highlighting the use of these 2030 use cards as well, and their role in tracking, the tracking process on the use engagement across the UN system. And I think it's particularly very important because we need a way to measure the use engagement. And I will now pass my third question to Alantre. And one of the recurring challenge in multilateral processes is that young people are not homogeneous, not a homogeneous constituency. Young people experience the international agenda very differently depending on where they live and their socioeconomic circumstances, like disability, gender, conflict, displacement, and other factors. How can multilateral institutions ensure that youth engagement reaches beyond the young people who are already have access to international spaces and actually like rich communities and young people who are often missing their conversations and like you can also connect with the AI and the technology perspective.

Thank you so much, moderator, excellencies, distinguished delegates and colleagues. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to address you all today. My name is Ellen Creta Deol, and I am the thematic focal point for the science policy interface here at the UN, and I lead cross-functional technical engagement across thousands of young engineers, data practitioners, researchers to shape evidence-backed, actionable, multilateral AI and data policy standards across UN agencies and member states. Being also a senior technical product designer, I see firsthand how interaction design choices on digital screens, system architectures, and public policy frameworks directly shape the daily environments young people navigate worldwide. And this connection between technical design and human reality is underscored by two contrasting realities that I've witnessed firsthand in the field. In one community, I watched conversational AI built on open public systems translate complex welfare policies into an Indigenous woman's native dialect, breaking generational literacy barriers in mere seconds. Yet in that very same community, I watched generative synthesis weaponized against a young woman student organizer producing non-consensual deepfakes in minutes to silence her civic voice. These livid realities capture our collective responsibility before the third committee, which is that as artificial intelligence accelerates rapidly, multilateral policy and design ambition must match its pace. And so to advance system coherence, youth agency, and institutional reform, we must treat these challenges not as isolated technical glitches, but as interconnected ecosystem of data, human-centered interfaces, and governance. So to that end, I'd like to present today five actionable recommendations for member states across technical governance and multilateral reform. First, let's unify United Nations data architecture with built-in human rights protections. In my work advancing actionable AI policy across the High-Level Political Forum, the Commission on the Status of Women, and the General Assembly, serving on the program committee for the UN World Data Forum, and connecting data initiatives alongside the UN Migration Network, UNDP, UNICEF, ITU, and the UN Data Commons, I've learned that true alignment happens when we replace fragmented frameworks. And so member states should standardize collection metrics adopt shared data definitions across agencies and integrate grassroots community realities with official statistics in a single trusted framework. Crucially, as governments integrate intelligence systems to optimize public services, member states should embed proactive threat modeling and pre-deployment human rights impact assessments directly into this unified data foundation before any tool scales to the public. Second, let's establish inclusive, tamper-evident interaction design lines. Because safety cannot be retrofitted after societal harm takes root, it must be engineered into digital blueprints from day one. Through founding and leading Program Your Future, I have seen that training underrepresented youth directly into product design cultivates leaders who anticipate exclusion before software ever ships. Further, just as civil engineering establishes universal physical accessibility codes, member states should champion digital accessibility standards, including expanding voice interactions screen reader compatibility, and cognitive and neurodivergent friendly interfaces. Alongside accessibility, member states should support the embedding of digital provenance markers and tamper evident watermarks within generative AI. This directly operationalizes the multilateral commitments of the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime, open for signature in 2025, thereby strengthening international cooperation to curb technology facilitated abuse, non-consensual synthetic media, and illicit digital harm. Third, let's ensure model transparency and runtime human-in-the-loop guardrails. Member states should advance technology design baselines that guide how systems behave during citizen interactions. For example, by curbing algorithmic fabrications through urging models to anchor responses in verified public knowledge, by requiring interfaces to visually signal model confidence and uncertainty rather than cloaking probabilistic guesses in authoritative prose, and by providing one-click source citations alongside graceful refusal states so that when a system reaches its training limits, it transparently states, "I do not know." These kinds of tools can help us evolve autonomous AI agents that execute multi-step workflows efficiently. And related to that, member states should establish expectations for reversible execution and user confirmation prior to high-stakes decisions, such as an automated system wrongfully denying public welfare benefits due to programming logic flaws or unhandled edge cases or biased proxy data. Having a human in the loop ensures someone can intervene and correct wrongful exclusions before harm is done, accompanied by continuous live monitoring to detect drift and stop cascading errors. And to operationalize this oversight, the third committee can institutionalize a youth AI red teaming mechanism, deploying our global network of young ethical hackers and researchers to stress test emerging systems for security flaws and cultural bias before public release. A fourth, let's dismantle compute monopolies to safeguard digital sovereignty and the planet. True multilateral reform must confront the physical concentration of hyperscale data centers. Today, youth and digital capitals access frontier models in real time, while millions across the global south face frozen loading screens or lack dependable electrical grids. Because these facilities sometimes consume massive water and energy supplies, member states should drive a transition towards meaningful compute use, directing scarce planetary resources toward structural challenges rather than speculative viral trends that are out there. Through multilateral standards, member states can eliminate monopolistic bottlenecks and foreign technology dependencies, ensuring that every nation retains sovereign capacity to build and adapt localized models that honor their linguistic heritage and prevent digital colonialism. And in doing so, we also preserve the critical thinking of the next generation, engineering AI as a cognitive scaffold that coaches independent inquiry rather than an automated answer machine that induces intellectual atrophy. Fifth and finally, let's modernize the Third Committee working methods under UN 80 while preserving core functions. As we implement the Global Digital Compact, the Pact for the Future, and the UN 80 Reform agenda, member states must ensure that institutional reform protects essential functions rather than merely streamlining bureaucratic structures or offices. The Third Committee's foundational responsibilities, including its normative human rights roles, robust oversight, dedicated support for marginalized populations, and civic space, must remain intact. Member states should systematically align the Third Committee's working methods with the UN80, the ongoing ECOSOC, and high-level political forum review, and general assembly revitalizations. To ground this coherence and lived experience, member states should establish regular institutionalized exchanges between the Third Committee Bureau, civil society, youth platforms, and grassroots stakeholders throughout the formal calendar. And to conclude, I'd like to just emphasize that algorithms, data architectures, and interfaces are never truly neutral. They reflect our chosen priorities. So let's work together and ensure multilateral technology policy delivers human dignity by design And I warmly welcome partnering with all the distinguished delegates and agency leadership here today to advance these science policy initiatives and priorities across the United Nations. So thank you so much, everyone, and back to you, moderator.

Thank you, Alexandra. Thank you. Ali, I would like to bring you to this discussion. Youth organizations play an important role in connecting realities of young people. on the ground with regional and global policy discussions. However, coordination between youth organizations, civil society, member state and UN institution can sometimes remain like fragmented. From your perspective, what mechanism could help strengthen collaboration between youth-led organization and the United Nation, particularly in ensuring that youth recommendation and form of the work of the CERD Committee and other intergovernmental processes.

Thank you, Mehlet, and thank you, Chair and Major Group for Children and Youth, for convening this meeting. I want to start with what we see as the most urgent issue in this conversation. The most important change in our communities is often led by crossroads young people acting on their lived experience in extremely challenging circumstances. conflict, displacement, poverty, and crisis. These are the people closest to the problem, and they are the least likely to be in this room. They do not have the resources, the channels, or the access. Visas, travel costs, other logistics, and connectivity keep them out. So the voices that reach the UN are too often the ones that can afford to get here. not the ones living the issues we are discussing. If you're serious about putting communities at the center, that has to change first. Their voices cannot depend on whether they can afford to be here. Virtual participation should be the standard, not the exception, and it should come with real support so the grassroot youth can take part meaningfully. Everything else we propose today, as asked in the question, is about making that possible. On coherence, young people do not experience the United Nations in silos. A young person in one community is dealing with decent work, education, migration, climate change, and now artificial intelligence all at the same time. But when they engage with the United Nations, they engage with one agency. They see it as one. One process, one consultation at a time. Every time they start from zero. We need a common standard for youth engagement across system so that what young people say in one forum carries to the next. One mechanism for the third committee, we see three. First, bring youth in earlier. Input should come before resolutions are drafted, not only at the forum like this, one after the fact. Second, close the loop. Tell young people what happened to what they said. Nothing erodes trust faster than giving input and never hearing back, so we need to work on giving more input to young people after they have given us the input. Third, use what already exists. Youth conferences and networks are already producing real outputs. Young people in our network developed a youth declaration on AI policy and governance. There should be a formal channel for that kind of work to reach member states. Finally, on the reforms, we understand the pressure for efficiency, but reform cannot mean fewer seats for the civil society and fewer seats for youth. A leaner system that hears fewer voices will not be a more trusted one. The clearest lesson we have learned is this, youth engagement works when it is institutionalized, and it fades when it depends on goodwill or on one champion. The UN Youth Office, major group of children, youth, and youth delegate programs show that the structure works. As reforms move forward, they need to be protected and funded. And we should measure engagement by outcomes, not by attendance, not how many young people were in the room, but how many of their recommendations made it to the next into the implementation. The young people who most need the system to work are often the one furthest from it. Trust in multilateralism is built when they can see their input change something. We are not asking only for young people to be consulted. We are ready to co-deliver with them. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ali. I think we have heard some important themes, representation, access, accountability, and institutional currents. And above all, we need to move from participation to meaningful influence. We will now open the floor for intervention, for interactive dialogue. We will invite participants to keep their remarks to two minutes. As a reminder, please note that requests from the floor should be made by pressing the microphone in front of you. I would like to remind speakers that in order to give all those wishing to speak the opportunity to take the floor, the time limit would be strictly two minutes. And I will now invite the European Union representative. I'll give the floor.

Dear Excellencies, distinguished delegates, fellow youth representatives, colleagues, and friends.

We did not choose the world we inherited.

We did not write its rules or build its institutions. But we live with the consequences of the decisions made today longer than almost anyone else in this room. Young people are entering job markets transformed by artificial intelligence. We are navigating an information environment where truth is increasingly difficult to distinguish from manipulation. We face economic uncertainty, and despite being the most connected generation in history, many still experience profound loneliness.

These are not simply youth issues.

They are the issues that will determine whether our institutions remain relevant. And there is a paradox in how we discuss the future of multilateralism. We speak about the future as though it is still waiting for arrival.

But for my generation, the future has already begun.

As the EU delegate to the United Nations, I represent young people across different countries and realities. And if there is one thing that connects us.

It is that the challenges shaping our future do not stop at national borders.

Neither should our solutions.

We cannot spend another decade preparing institutions for a world that is already here. This is why forums like today's matter.

But dialogue alone is not enough.

So my call to action today is very concrete.

I challenge every member state represented here to take at least.

One recommendation from the youth-led position paper emerging from this forum and turn it into a concrete commitment. Involve young people in its implementation, assign responsibility and report back on progress before we meet up again next year. We are here not simply to inherit multilateralism. We are here to help make it worth inheriting.

Thank you.

Thank you. I will now give the floor for Children and Youth International representative. Online.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Thank you, Chair, dear colleagues and delegates. Through my work on the IR, I have seen how young people contribute to global policy, but even when we have spaces for young people to participate, we still need stronger mechanisms to ensure their contributions influence decisions and implementation beyond halls. Social development cannot be addressed without understanding how people experience inequality, insecurity, and exclusion in their daily lives. Thus, we need to put a special attention in the gap between what institutions identify as priorities and what communities themselves say they need. I will encourage to reflect on the following. First, ensure that social development discussions and resolutions keep pace with emerging risk shaping young people's lives. Member states should consider how critical thinking and inclusive access can be integrated into policies that protect young people's rights and strengthen their participation in the full policy cycle. And second, we need to strengthen cooperation. NDRR offers a concrete example. Communities facing disasters also experience inequality at all levels. Addressing these risks requires human rights and social and sustainable development actors to work together, with young people contributing their knowledge of local realities. Let's be bold and replicate at all levels. As we look towards 2030, I believe we should ask further than how many young people have participated, but whether their participation has changed a policy, influenced a resource allocation, or improved an outcome in their communities. That is how we can make intergenerational action meaningful, not just by giving young people a voice, but by building institutions that are accountable for what they do with it. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll now give the floor for representative of Norway.

Thank you, Chair. We are the first generation in decades to see the arrows pointing down instead of up for democracy, for human rights, and for trust in institutions just like this one. To be honest, I'm kind of tired hearing about the young people should have a seat at the table. We are sitting here in a huge room with our countries' names on the screens. But those who need access to this microphone the most are often those with the least access to it. Just count, youth delegates from Europe are overrepresented and very few countries from other continents. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful to be here. But what do we get out of it if it's all talk and little action? I'm talking about international law, which is broken day after day in front of our eyes. I have friends in Palestine and in Gaza. Every day, we get yet another reason to stop believing that UN will protect us. Our whole generation is watching. And if international law cannot protect the children and youth of Palestine, why should we believe it will protect us? A generation that loses faith in the rules will also lose faith in the institution that built to uphold them. And what is an institution like the UN without the faith and trust of young people? I am thankful for the time to share my thoughts here today, but I am disappointed in how international law is failing, and I'm worried what that means for our future. Before we talk about how we as young people should participate, I hope we can start by following international law. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. I will now give the floor for Pakistan, Council for Social Welfare and Human Rights, representative.

Thank you, Chair, moderator. My sincere thanks to the distinguished panelists, esteemed delegates, and fellow participants today for our insightful discussion. My name is Madina Amber. I'm representing the Pakistan Council for Social Welfare and Human Rights. I also served as an ambassador for the International Organization of Youth, and I have served as a student representative through the CUNY University Student Senate, advocating for student interests and participation in decision making. So being here today is a privilege, but also it makes me think about the young people who are not in this room, similar to what speakers like Sahar and Ali mentioned earlier, those who not have the same access to like international platforms, policymakers or opportunities to make their voices heard. It reminded me of the challenges faced by children in rural Azad Kashmir, where school infrastructure and adequate learning environments have created barriers for accessing education, books, and other essential learning materials. It is a reminder that youth empowerment begins long before a young person reaches an international platform. It begins having the access to education, a safe space to learn, and the resources needed to build their future. So as we work towards the 2030 agenda and reimagining multilateralism, my question is, how can member states and United Nations ensure that voices we hear in international forums are connected to the realities of young people in their own communities, particularly those who face barriers to participating either in civic life or in policymaking? Thank you.

Thank you. I will now give the floor for representative of Mexico.

Hi. Mr. Chair, thank you for this space, and thank you to the panelists and my fellow youth delegates for your valuable insights. I'm Michelle, one of the five Mexican youth delegates.

And I want to briefly share the experience of the Mexican youth delegation over these weeks.

We feel incredibly fortunate to be a truly diverse team. Our delegation represents Mexicans in all our diversity, including indigenous youth and the Mexican-American migrant community. This internal diversity has allowed us to understand global issues much more comprehensively, highlighting very different needs and realities. However, we suggest this diversity to extend beyond our delegation. particularly regarding regional representation from the Global South.

We recognize the financial barriers that often limit these programs, but we firmly.

Believe the Youth Delegate Program needs broader regional inclusion. For multilateralism to be truly effective, the Global South must be an active partner at the table. Global challenges like climate change, digital governance, and security threats have profoundly different impacts depending on the local context. We need all of those perspectives represented in this room to shape inclusive global solutions.

Thank you.

Thank you. I will now give the floor for International Federation of Medical Students Association representative who will be joining us online.

Thank you, Chair. I hope I'm audible. I speak on behalf of the International Federation of Medical Students' Associations, representing medical students across more than 125 countries. Building on the important reflections heard today from our experience in global health governance, trans is strengthening when youth participation has three pillars: a mandate, a means to participate, and accountability for what happens afterwards. First, participation must be institutionalized. We have seen the value of mechanisms such as the Youth Delegates Programme, which brings young people directly into member state delegations, and structured youth councils that create continuity between a single consultation. Young people should participate across the full policy cycle, from agenda setting and negotiation to implementation, monitoring and review. Second, access is not alone enough. Participant participation requires preparation and resources. Through our experiences preparing medical students to engage in international health processes, we have seen that young people bring not only lived experiences, but also valuable professional perspectives and expertise, particularly when they receive preparation and support needed to contribute effectively. But travel, accessibility, information, interpretation and follow-up must also be resourced. Otherwise, participation continues to favor those who already have access. Lastly, we need an accountability loop. After consultations, institutions should clearly communicate which recommendations were taken forward, which were not and why. UNAT is also an opportunity to reduce fragmentation. Health cannot be separated from human rights, education, decent work or social development, yet youth engagement across these standards is often still unorganized or being organized in parallel. We need to create more consistent standards for meaningful youth participation across the UN system and stronger links between local, national, regional and global mechanisms. The goals should not simply be given to young people a seat at the table, but to ensure that they have a defined role, the resource to fulfill it, and evidence that their participation influences the outcomes. Thank you.

Thank you. I will now give the floor for representative of Portugal, be joining us online.

Thank you, Chair, your colleagues. We are at a decisive moment. Conflicts are spreading, international law is under pressure, and climate change, inequality, and AI are reshaping our lives faster than our institutions can respond. We cannot accept a world where international law no longer works. And no country can face these challenges alone. Multilateralism is still the best answer, even when we don't see it. Every day, thousands of planes cross borders safely because countries agreed on common rules. Every call and message we send travels across networks that work together because nations chose cooperation. When we share rules, when we share responsibility, we deliver. But the next generation will only trust multilateralism if it's built with us. As the UN Assistant Head of Youth Affairs reminds us, participation is not consultation. Young people must co-design the answers from AI to climate. That is what the resolution 2250 asked for 10 years ago. Young people as partners for peace and national youth councils and youth delegates are good examples of how to make that real. In Portugal, the National Youth Council connects youth organisations and communities to decision makers. But that is not enough. We need to give young people space in politics everywhere, starting at the local level. And at every level, we need permanent dialogue, co-decision and real accountability for how youth input is used. As Portugal takes its seat on the Security Council next year, we have a responsibility to lead by example and champion the youth peace and security agenda. Dear colleagues, let us move from consultation to co-decision. Young people are ready. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. I will now give the floor for representative of SOS Children's Village International.

Madam Moderator, Mr. Chair, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, young people, thank you for giving me the floor. I'm speaking today on behalf of SOS Children's Villages International, an organization working in more than 130 countries supporting children without adequate parental care and supporting young people's transition to adulthood. In many countries, young people without parental care face structural barriers when they turn 18, including lack of access to housing, education, employment, social protection measures, and mental health support. Their rights and needs are often overlooked, and governments need to develop and implement targeted laws and policies for these youth care leavers. The third committee is an opportunity for member states to discuss and agree on how to address issues affecting young people. This year, there will be resolutions adopted on topics ranging from right to privacy in digital age and literacy for life to violence against women and girls. But let's be honest, although these issues affect young people, their meaningful and inclusive participation during these negotiations and implementation is still lacking. And although it was great to have heard from some Member States today, we need to be more present in these kinds of things, to be more present in these kinds of convenings for a true multi-stakeholder dialogue. So we urge Member States to keep children and young people's needs, including those without adequate parental care, at top of mind during meetings and negotiations of the Third Committee. In a few weeks' time, some 30-plus resolutions will be adopted. What does this mean in practice? Pages and pages of text signaling international recognition and globally agreed language and commitments by member states. But of course, all the negotiations will go to waste and opportunity to improve children and young people's lives will be lost if resolutions are kept within this building and not delivered for the people. So we urge member states to translate these global commitments into national policies, laws, and legislations. Civil society and young people play a crucial role as well, providing technical expertise and unique perspectives. And we encourage governments to work hand in hand with them to ensure resolutions implementations for the betterment of children and young people. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll now give the floor for the representative of Ukraine.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

It is an honor to speak on behalf of Ukrainian youth. Every day, Russia attacks Ukrainian cities, Ukrainian children, and young people. Every day, we fear for our lives. And every day, without exception, Ukrainian youth keep studying, working, and organizing events, initiatives, and conferences. People my age and even younger defend Ukraine on the front line. Every day, young people give everything they have to Ukraine so that Ukraine has a tomorrow. Before coming here, we held consultations with active young people in seven Ukrainian cities, some just 38 kilometers from the front line. Their message was clear. They do not want to wait for the future. They want to stay in Ukraine and build it now. So they need resources and support. In Ukraine, they already do. Today, 664 youth councils with nearly 11,000 members work alongside local authorities. Young people advise the government and parliament, work in think tanks, and start businesses. This year, thanks to the work of young people, Youth Council, together with our Minister of Foreign Affairs, youth diplomacy was officially included in Ukraine's public diplomacy strategy 2026-2030. Young Ukrainians are no longer only on subjects of policy. They are Ukrainians' voice in the world. At this year Ukraine's recovery conference, young Ukrainians asked for a seat at the table where decisions about their communities are made. The schools, youth centers, and rehabilitation services for young veterans that we build today must be designed with youth and not only for youth. Four years remain until 2030. We did not choose this war, but we choose to build what comes after it. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Now I will give the floor for Chika Federation of India, who will be joining us online.

Namaste, honorable chair, distinguished delegates, and fellow young leaders. I am Janvi. I'm a global gender rights activist from India and working in the space for almost a decade now. And I would like to start with a statement.

The real test of multilateralism is not how many commitments we make, but how effectively we connect them to the lives of people they serve.

Through my grassroots work, I've seen that a single challenge rarely exists in isolation. A child who is out of school may also be suffering from poverty, inadequate healthcare, disability-related barriers, or digital exclusion.

And I have seen the distance that can exist between the rights recognized on paper and the choices people can.

Actually make.

And the problems that normal people face really fit into the categories through which our institutions address them.

And I have three recommendations. Firstly, that the UN strengthens the cross agency follow up through shared community level indicators. Instead of assessing commitment separately, we should examine whether they are collectively improving access to education, healthcare, protection and justice for the people who are most often left behind. Secondly, we need a clear pathway between youth participation and institutional actions.

Recommendations emerging from youth consultations.

Should be documented, referred to reliable bodies and followed by a response explaining what can be acted upon, what cannot and why. And this would make the participation a process of accountability rather than a one-time opportunity to speak.

As broadly as the UN 80 initiative includes, the form should be measured by whether it improves.

Coordination on the ground, reduces duplication, and makes the UN more accessible to grassroots organizations and the local people.

And for me, this is where multilateralism becomes meaningful. An international commitment should not end with a document.

It should begin a process whose impact people can recognize in their own lives.

Namaste and thank you. Thank you. I'll now give the floor for representative from Belgium. Mr. Chair, distinguished delegates, yesterday we had the honor of speaking with two senior officials of UNDESA. They asked us about the current state of youth engagement at the UN. While it is important to reflect on both the quality and quantity of our presence in the room, we also need to ask a broader question. How are the voices of young people outside this wall heard and represented in formal decision-making process? Young people are active members of our society, whether they participate in formal institutions or not. Yet, many young people do not feel represented by the political institutions at the regional, national or international level. But this does not mean that we do not care.

We care about the rising cost of living and housing.

We care about the climate crisis and how it affects our lives today and our future. We care about the growing numbers of wars, conflicts, and geopolitical uncertainty.

Young people demonstrated their civic engagement in many ways, by claiming spaces online and offline, reposting a story on Instagram, heading to the streets to speak up about climate justice.

Or volunteering in their local communities. Yet, too often, these lived experiences and concerns fail to make their ways into the rooms where decisions are made. As youth delegates, we are often told that we have the power to represent young people's voices and make a difference.

Yet, we still struggle to find meaningful ways.

To bring the concerns that we hear in our communities into formal decision-making processes.

Our lived experiences shows us that as young people, we are not waiting to become involved.

We are already involved in countless ways.

And this provides us with energy, drive, and many ideas.

And the remaining question is now, are institutions ready to listen to what we have to say?

And more importantly, are they willing to turn to listening into action?

Thank you.

Thank you. I'll now give the floor for young Representative of Young Diplomats of Canada.

Good afternoon, distinguished delegates, esteemed speakers, and fellow young leaders. Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this important conversation. My name is Jeffrey Osei Nyarko, and I'm a member of the Young Diplomats of Canada and the co-founder of the A.E. Nyarko Foundation, a nonprofit working to empower underserved communities in Ghana. Earlier this year, while studying abroad in Ghana, I visited in the central region and became deeply concerned by the number of young girls I encountered who were under the age of 16 and already were pregnant or became mothers. I realized that these weren't just statistics, but these were young women who needed opportunities and futures of work. So I raised these concerns to a local parliament member who expressed the willingness to support the efforts. When we spoke directly with the girls, they shared what they needed, opportunities for work to become more financially independent. In response, our foundation established a vocational initiative teaching fashion and design, including tailoring. Today, we have graduated over 15 young girls and are now working in leadership positions tailoring companies throughout Ghana. response, my question is at this time when the United Nations faces funding constraints, what concrete pathways exist for youth-led organizations like the UN to support these young girls, to support our organizations that establish meaningful partnerships and scale our impact? And how can young founders in this room move beyond recognized as change makers and become genuine partners of the United Nations development priorities. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll now give the floor for representative of Slovakia.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, dear colleagues. Returning to these UN halls after addressing the Ecos of Youth Forum earlier this year, I'm reminded that our challenge goes beyond institutional mechanics. In April, I spoke about structural integration of youth participation from the local to global levels, as well as some of the issues exacerbated by the AI boom in the last few years. Today, as we discuss reimagining multilateralism, I believe we must discuss an issue that hits closer to home, a quiet, growing skepticism toward the very idea of international cooperation and rule-based order. Over the past year in my mandate, I have traveled across Slovakia, meeting with hundreds of young people from the smallest municipalities to those studying and working abroad. In nearly every conversation, their core questions and concerns were not about UN resolutions or committee procedures. They were about the multilateral system itself. Why negotiate? Why compromise? Does international dialogue actually matter anymore if the rules are not followed? And what can we do as a small country in Central Europe? Do we matter? In today's narrative landscape, the necessity of diplomatic dialogue and compromise is no longer self-evident. Nuance is routinely drowned out, and consensus is too easily misconstrued as weakness. In my mandate, I do my best to tackle these questions head on. But how can one explain the UN to young people? without first restoring a clear, grounded picture of why multilateralism matters. If we are serious about putting youth and communities at the center of the UN reform agenda, our task cannot be limited to bringing youth policies to New York. Reimagining multilateralism means equipping young leaders with tools to defend the values of dialogue, nuance, and compromise back home. I thank you.

Thank you. I'll now give the floor for Arrow, who will be joining us online.

Thank you, thank you, moderator. Thank you for the opportunity. My name is Paulin and I'm from Bhutan, and I'm speaking on behalf of Arrow and the APFST Youth Forum. Across our region, young people are already leading conversation, are already leading initiatives on sustainable development, sexual and reproductive health and rights. mental health, gender equality, and climate action. Yet, despite these contributions, many continue to face barriers in accessing opportunities, resources, and meaningful participation in decisions that affect their lives. In the Asia Pacific region since 2017, ARO together with its co-conveners has convened the APFST Youth Forum. This February, 705 young people aged 13 to 30 from 38 countries took part in person and online. Through this platform, we deliberately prioritized the participation of young people from marginalized communities and hard to reach areas, creating opportunities for their voices to inform and influence multilateral processes. However, the challenge remains that existing systems and structures do not adequately create space for young people to participate meaningfully and influence the priorities that affect their lives. As we look towards 2030 and beyond, I believe we need to focus on three important things. First, strengthening youth participation in decision making. Second, investing in and partnering with youth-led initiatives through accessible and sustainable funding. And lastly, creating stronger partnership between government, UN agencies, civil society, and young people. Young people are already driving solutions, and with the right support and meaningful intergenerational partnerships, we can collectively shape more inclusive, people-centered development. Thank you.

Thank you. If we want young people to trust multilateralism, we have to demonstrate their participation produce results. As we conclude this segment, I want to thank our speakers, member state youth we conclude this segment I want to thank our speakers member state Youth representative civil society organization and everyone who contribute to this dialogue what I take from today's conversation is that meaningful youth participation is not additional feature of multilateralism but is a part of multilateral work young people are are are asking not simply to be invited into existing spaces, but to help shape the space, processes, and decision that will define our future. And as an international community moves through the UN 80 processes and towards the next phase of the 2030 agenda, we have an opportunity to make the principle tangible. The challenge is now to move from consultation to co-creation, from participation to influence, and from commitments to implementation. On behalf of the organizers, thank you for the engagement, your perspective, your willingness to continue this conversation. I hope today's discussion will not remain in this room, but will continue through the work we all do on the grassroots or everywhere. And I have a request, please Before I pass the mic to the chair, please leave the ticket. You need another ticket for this afternoon's session and follow the group chats, please. I'll now pass the floor to the chair.

So thank you, moderator. Thank you, both our panels. I think that's been great. Can I really express my warmest possible appreciation for the work done by the Major Group for Children and Youth in bringing all of us together here today. I think we should give them applause to thank them for their efforts. Let me say, as Chair of the Third Committee for the 81st session, Your comments have really helped inform me as to some of the things that we should be thinking about when we look at either thematic issues across the course of the committee or particular country situations, and when we look at resolutions and we reflect on resolutions, some of the things that we should be drawing to the attention of negotiating delegations. And everything I heard today was about inclusion, was it about representation, it was about outcomes, it was about impact on the ground, and it was about not being focused on the halls of this building, but being focused on the people in the relevant communities that we care about. And so I found that an immensely useful contribution. I thank you very much for everybody who put a lot of thought into both the panels but also the interventions from the floor, and you can be assured that you have absolutely made a difference. But also for an old guy like me, obviously, I've got more listening to do. So thank you so much.