Youth Ministers meeting in Colombo
Sri Lanka will host the Seventh Meeting of Commonwealth Youth
Ministers (7CYMM) in Colombo from April 27-30 under the theme "Youth and
Peacebuilding".
President Mahinda Rajapaksa is scheduled to open the meeting, which
will also be addressed by Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh
Sharma.
The meeting will discuss emerging issues of youth development,
specifically linkages between peace-building, social development and
transformation. It will also provide policy directions for the
Commonwealth Youth Programme and the Commonwealth's other youth work for
the next four years.
"At the meeting the Commonwealth will reaffirm its vision as to how
the organisation can best address the challenges and opportunities
facing youth. We've got to get it right in respect of youth development
issues," said Deputy Secretary-General Florence Mugasha.
Youth representatives from the Commonwealth will also take part in
the 7CYMM and other meetings including a skills building workshop on
women, youth and peace building.
"Young people are the inheritors of a changing world - its economic
distributions, social positions, cultural identities and historical
narratives," the Commonwealth's Commission on Respect and Understanding
said in its report, Civil Paths to Peace.
"They need not be passive recipients of these things; with
appropriate support and political will young people can be an active,
positive force for development, locally, nationally and
internationally."
The meeting will also discuss how to eradicate poverty to help
diminish factors linked to economic marginalisation and alienation and
reduce tensions among young people. |