Youth 20, the G20 youth engagement group, kicked off its Summit at the Municipal Theater in Rio de Janeiro in honor of International Youth Day. With a full house, young people from all over the world learned the passinho dance moves and saw previews of the themes that will be worked on throughout the week in Rio de Janeiro.
On August 12, International Youth Day, the traditional and the irreverent came together at Rio de Janeiro's Municipal Theater. The building combines neoclassical and art nouveau elements and is well-known for its ballet and opera performances. For the event, its stage was occupied by the new, by young people who dare to dream and fight for a more equitable and sustainable world. Youth 20 (Y20), the youth engagement group of the world's largest international economic cooperation forum, began its summit to soundtrack of funk, slam, and samba.
Repeating the Pre-Summit, which took place in June in Belém, the capital of the state of Pará, youth from around the world packed the theater, demonstrating the interest and capacity of the 21st century generations to debate and propose ways forward for issues such as global governance reform, sustainable development, and the fight against hunger and poverty. Young people represent a quarter of the world's population, according to data from the United Nations (UN), and are the most affected by so many of the social, economic and climate changes. So why shouldn't they also, with the audacity of diversity, be the voices and faces of the solutions? This is the proposal for the meeting that will continue until Friday (16) in the capital of Rio de Janeiro.
"As we speak, young people in our countries continue to be affected and excluded, abandoned by the absence of public policies for the youth, by the fragility of spaces for social participation, by the fragility of spaces for youth protagonism. Here, in this environment, we must move forward in this historic commitment and say that there will be nothing for us without us, bringing real meaning to this phrase and not the mere poetry of institutional spaces", said Marcus Barão, chair of Y20, 8n his address to the audience.
"As we speak, young people in our countries continue to be affected and excluded, abandoned by the absence of public policies for the youth, by the fragility of spaces for social participation, by the fragility of spaces for youth protagonism. Here, in this environment, we must move forward in this historic commitment and say that there will be nothing for us without us, bringing real meaning to this phrase and not the mere poetry of institutional spaces", said Marcus Barão, chair of Y20, 8n his address to the audience.
"It is beautiful to see the plurality of young people from Brasil and around the world here, to see these young people who have the rebellious streak in them and the will to turn their dreams into reality," said Bruna Brelaz, president of Brasil's National Youth Council (CONJUVE). "We must reflect on the challenges of this generation. We advocate for the right to access the labor market with decent wages. We want the right to full culture, and we also want the right to our territories, with basic sanitation and security. We are fighting more than ever for climate justice and we want our Black and indigenIous counterparts alive," she added, announcing the creation of the National Youth Plan Articulation Committee.
The event counts with the participation of all the G20 countries and invited organizations, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs, Felipe Paullier, the Secretary-General of the Pan-African Youth Union, Bening Ahmed Wiisichong, and authorities from the Brazilian Federal Government are also confirmed. The Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, Márcio Macedo, will hold a press conference with the youth at the Rio de Janeiro Art Museum (MAR) later today, where the activities continue this afternoon.
