ESU promotes more youth involvement in UNESCO’s work

PARIS – The European Students’ Union (ESU) submitted a draft to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in which it urges the new liaison committee for non-governmental organisations to recognise the lack of youth involvement in the committee’s work.

ESU prepared the draft together with its associate member IFMSA (International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations), full member FAGE (Federation des Associations Generales Etudiantes), and ELSA (European Law Students’ Association). Together they urged the committee to promote better access and contact with youth in general.

The document was submitted at UNESCO’s International Conference of Non-Governmental Organisations in Paris, France, held from 15 to 17 December 2014. As one of its 120 members, ESU participated in the meeting to present and discuss past and future collective actions. The conference was an opportunity to both get a clear view of the activities carried out by UNESCO’s NGO liaison committee, whose role is to organise events during the year in order to better involve and include NGO’s in the decision making process of UNESCO, as well as to elect new committee members.

This time, the overarching theme of the conference was “Re-enchanting the world with the post-2015 development agenda”, and was organised around four sub-themes:

– The involvement of NGO’s for the promotion of quality education in the post-2015 agenda;

– Water and sustainable development, from awareness raising to decision making;
– Enhancing cultural heritage and fostering the diversity of cultural expression;
– Climate change: acting now.

Mrs Martine Levy was elected as new chairperson of the NGO liaison committee, as well as a geographically balanced team of ten people to assist her in her work.

The document that ESU submitted together with its partners was received by the committee and debated, and should be included in its strategic priorities for its upcoming mandate.

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For more information, please contact:

Elisabeth Gehrke, ESU Chairperson: +32/479.591.499 // elisabeth@esu-online.org or Robert Hlynur Baldursson, ESU Communications Manager: +32/473.669.894 // robert@esu-online.org