The burning question of 2020

"How can we meet the needs of all - within the means of the planet?”

Each year the In­ter­na­tional Day of Peace is ob­served around the world on 21 Septem­ber. The UN Gen­eral As­sembly has de­clared this as a day de­voted to strength­en­ing the ideals of peace­ful col­lab­or­a­tion, both within and among all na­tions and peoples.

The coronavirus dis­ease has ad­ded a new di­men­sion to Pea­ceday 2020. For the first time in his­tory, people all over the world are hav­ing the same con­cerns about how we re­build the world bey­ond the pan­demic.

The epi­cen­ter of the ini­ti­at­ive was YOUTH IS­LAND – a former sea fort­ress loc­ated a short sail­ing trip from the UN-City in Copen­ha­gen, where 11 UN or­gan­iz­a­tions are col­lab­or­at­ing across sec­tors to achieve the 17 Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals. Since the fort­ress was handed over to the Dan­ish Scouts 5 years ago, it has been trans­formed into a unique gath­er­ing place for young people – and a thriv­ing hab­itat, where grasses, herbs and wild flowers have star­ted to over­grow the old gun em­place­ments and hangars.

100 youth delegates across 6 continents participated

in our Peaceday 2020 global youth assembly gathering

100 youth delegates from different cities across six continents participated in the online assembly, while others followed the discussions on different media platforms.

During the series of virtual roundtable discussions you all demonstrated your readiness to connect and collaborate across borders and cultures.

We were overwhelmed by the insights and commitments delivered by all of you and the many applicants who signed up and shared their visions and aspirations with us.

The as­sembly iden­ti­fied a num­ber of im­min­ent and ur­gent is­sues that must be ad­dressed by the World Lead­ers.

The conclusions from the plenary sessions were collected by a harvesting team on Youth Island outside Copenhagen, and turned into a Declaration listing 10 recommendations for the UN.

Click here to view the Peace day 2020 Global Youth Assembly Declaration (PDF)

 

Quote from UN75:
We will listen to and work with youth. Youth is the missing piece for peace and development. As we benefited from the foresight of the founders of the United Nations, young people

From Youth Island to the UN - on a Viking ship!

On Peace day, Septem­ber 21, a del­eg­a­tion of youth rep­res­ent­at­ives sailed from Youth Is­land to the UN City in Copen­ha­gen on a Vik­ing Ship, to hand over the con­clu­sions and the harvest from the Global Youth Assembly to UNDP Dir­ector Ca­m­illa Brück­ner, who prom­ised to for­ward the con­clu­sions to the Gen­eral As­sembly.

The Peace Day 2020 Global Youth Assembly clearly demonstrated that the next generation possess the creativity, talent and willpower it takes to transform the world.

 

See video highlights from the event and from the handover to UN on sept.21. 2020.

And this was only the beginning!

In the UN 75 Declaration, which was adopted by the General Assembly on September 21, the world leaders have made the following promise:

We will listen to and work with youth. Youth is the missing piece for peace and development. As we benefited from the foresight of the founders of the United Nations, young people today will have to live with the consequences of our action and inaction. For too long, the voices of youth have been sidelined in discussions about their future. This has to change now through meaningful engagement with youth.”

We took this promise into account

On the 24th of October, which is the official 75th birthday of the United Nations, we handed over a very special birthday gift to the UN.

Our intention is to invite the world leaders to begin their commitment to listen and work with youth starting now and to join a multilateral intergenerational meeting on Peace Day 2021, to discuss how we can collaborate across generations to co-create the future we want.

The Intergenerational Assembly in 2021 has the potential to become an unprecedented historical event –  and you can help us make it happen!  

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