A young peace campaigner from Cameroon who turned his back on the violence prevalent in his hometown and became a youth civil society activist, has been telling the United Nations about how he is helping other young people to reject conflict, and take a greater role in building peace in the country.
With some 1.8 billion people between the ages of 10 and 24 around the globe, young people have a “key role” to play in forging lasting peace agreements, according to UN Youth Envoy, Jayathma Wickramanayake.
They’re important to maintaining peace and security in communities, and to “building social cohesion”, she explained in an interview with UN News. She began by explaining to Liz Scaffidi how the youth, peace and security agenda has evolved.
The United Nations Secretary-General on Saturday welcomed the decision by the Lower House of Somalia’s Federal Parliament to nullify a special law and to return to the 17 September Electoral Agreement that will allow for indirect presidential and parliamentary elections.
A fresh United Nations-led bid to seek to resolve decades of tensions in Cyprus began in Geneva on Tuesday, with Secretary-General António Guterres “realistic” about the chances of making progress, his Spokesperson said.
The UN and international partners working to support a lasting peace and democratic election process across Somalia, said on Sunday that they were highly concerned by the current situation there, calling on Somali leaders to “prioritize the national interest” and resolve their political impasse.
The top UN official in Haiti called Monday for a “democratic renewal” in the troubled Caribbean nation to lift it out of a drawn-out political and humanitarian crisis and put it back on the path to stability and development.
The top UN official in Libya urged the Security Council on Thursday to express clear support for a new unified government in Libya, amid hopeful signs that a decade of armed conflict might finally be coming to an end.
Against the backdrop of a COVID-19 crisis that has exacerbated pre-pandemic challenges and a global ceasefire appeal to combat it, the UN chief called for new peacebuilding funds on Tuesday, promising a “renewed approach to multilateralism and international cooperation”.
After a decade of conflict, economic collapse compounded by COVID-19, corruption and mismanagement, the UN Syrian envoy told the Security Council on Wednesday that “a slow tsunami” is now “crashing across Syria”.
While elections are one-time events, “democracy is a constant process of deliberation and consultation” where dialogue provides an “important arena for the building of national consensus”, the top UN official in West Africa told the Security Council on Monday.
