Delegate: Mr. Mulgrave
48. Mr. Mulgrave (Jamaica), speaking as his country’s youth delegate, said that the Jamaican athletes who had participated in the twenty-ninth Olympic Games in Beijing had been a source of inspiration and that, with that kind of determination, goals could be achieved, including the Millennium Development Goals.
49. While it was true that some progress had been made, it was not certain that all of the Millennium Development Goals could be achieved by 2015. The Caribbean region, for its part, was behind in its efforts and would fail to reach the Goals without the contribution of its young people.
50. It was encouraging to note that the United Nations had developed an international policy on youth, specifically the World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond. Young people represented one fifth of the 6 billion people living in the world. Some 86 per cent of them lived in developing countries, including the Caribbean Member States. It was to be hoped that the young people of the region would be able to increase their contribution to the development of policies at the international level, considering that Jamaica was the only member State of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) that had included youth delegates in its delegation to the General Assembly. The CARICOM Youth Ambassadors Programme could play a useful role in that regard.
51. He endorsed the statements made by fellow youth delegates, including those from Germany and Switzerland, and called on Member States to support the participation of young people at the United Nations, in particular by including youth delegates in their delegations.
52. Young people, who would be tomorrow’s leaders, joined in the appeal by Caribbean leaders encouraging the international community to devise strategic programmes to address the particular needs of middle-income countries, with deep pockets of poverty.
53. The world was faced with specific problems that called for eclectic solutions, and the involvement of young leaders was imperative. Youth policies should be changed where necessary, youth councils should be established where there were none, technology should be used as a tool to reach the young “technocentric” generation, and social policies should stress the importance of family stability.
UN Doc.: A/C.3/63/SR.4
Cite as:
UN Doc.: A/C.3/63/SR.4, 7 October 2008, p. 6, Youth Delegate Search: https://youthdelegatesearch.org/jamaica-2008/, doi: 10.17176/20221018-194514-0.