OneWorld.net (U.S.)

OneWorld.net note: Young people from developing countries -- including Nepal, Iraq, and South Africa -- are meeting with their counterparts from the world's most powerful nations this week to draft recommendations on global issues, which they will share with world leaders at next week's G8 Summit.

• Youth representatives from every world region meet at the annual J8 Summit to share their ideas and concerns on the same issues the G8 leaders will discuss July 7-9th. The J8 meeting, held July 2-9, parallels the G8 Summit in Hokkaido, Japan.
  
  
• The youth will draft the Chitose Declaration on poverty, African development, climate change, and HIV/AIDS and present their recommendations to G8 leaders at the opening ceremony.
  
  
• Teams of four entered a contest to be chosen as representatives at the J8. A panel of judges from each country then chose participants from submitted videos, multimedia presentations, or written work on one of the J8 topics.

Youths from developing nations prepare for Junior 8 Summit in Japan

From: UNICEF

CHITOSE CITY, Hokkaido, Japan, 1 July 2008 ­– On the eve of the opening of the 4th Junior 8 Summit, young people from seven different non-G8 countries have gathered here to discuss the global issues that are most pressing to them and their communities.

This group wants to ensure that voices from the non-G8 world are heard and that their issues are given serious consideration in this yearly youth summit that runs parallel to the G8 Summit of world leaders.

One delegate from the group of non-G8 youth, as well as one from each G8 country, will meet with the leaders later this week, as an official part of the G8 Summit ceremonies. Before that meeting, the group of young people will draft the ‘Chitose Declaration’, a document that will define their requests and recommendations as representatives of the world’s youth.

Reasons for coming together

This year’s non-G8 representatives to the J8 Summit include young people from Barbados, Côte d’Ivoire, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal and South Africa. On this initial day of meetings – huddled together in a meeting room of Chitose’s main cultural centre, and speaking shyly at first – they shared the reasons that brought them to the summit.

The young man from Nepal was adamant about presenting the concerns of street children, while the young woman from Iraq spoke of her work to combat the recent outbreak of cholera in her region. The delegate from Barbados has recently produced a television programme about HIV and AIDS, and sexuality in the Caribbean, where she says sex is such a casual decision that “it’s like catching the bus.”

Non-G8 representation is key

Non-G8 youth were included in the J8 Summit in 2005, 2007 and now in 2008. When they were not included in the 2006 summit, the young delegates from the G8 countries demanded that no other summit should occur without representation from these other countries – especially those from regions most affected by the issues that the G8 Summit usually addresses, such as poverty and global warming.

The Junior 8 Summit officially kicks off on 2 July 2008, when the G8 countries’ delegates will also join the events.

Click here for more from UNICEF about youth activists at the G8 and other issues affecting the world's young people.