2021 Youth Statement at the UNGA First Committee
Reverse The Trend is proud to have co-sponsored the youth statement, which was delivered by Jeremiah Williams of Pace University. Many of our interns and coordinators worked on the statement together.
According to Williams, the youth have urged delegations to:
Support this year’s “Youth, disarmament and non-proliferation” resolution, incorporating recommendations from this joint civil society statement and the Seoul Youth Declaration, particularly regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion. The resolution should make linkages to other pressing issues such as climate action and addressing the COVID-19 pandemic;
Highlight the crucial role of youth and disarmament education in First Committee statements, calling for efforts sensitive to intersectional marginalization, mainstreaming promotion of gender equality and building capacity of poorly-represented peoples and groups, including survivors of violence;
Support any resolution(s) calling on states to join the TPNW;
Provide funding and institutional support to youth inclusion and disarmament education efforts, including UNODA’s Youth4Disarmament;
Include language on disarmament education and youth in outcome documents of both the forthcoming NPT Review Conference and TPNW Meeting of States Parties.
The full statement can be found here.