Commonwealth Youth Ministers Meeting 2008: Youth and Peace-Building

The theme for the CYMM will be on Youth and Peace.

Commonwealth Youth Ministers Meeting (CYMM):

• Enables Ministers to consider and discuss emergent themes in global youth affairs;
• Provides Ministers with the opportunity to meet their Commonwealth colleagues and to exchange views in an informal atmosphere;
• Reviews the strategic operations and directions of the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP) and the priorities for action on youth development within the Commonwealth;
• Provides mandates, direction and guidance to the CYP for its next cycle of operations;
• CYMM is also an opportunity for dialogue with Commonwealth Youth Representatives - who meet beforehand as well as having a seat at the meeting itself.

Commonwealth governments are expected to be represented at the ministerial level and a young person is expected to be included in the delegation to the meeting.

The Ministers’ Meeting will be preceded by meetings of the Regional Youth Caucus (24 April); the Regional Advisory Board (25 April.

CYMM 2008, in Sri Lanka, will take as its starting point the Commonwealth Commission on Respect and Understanding Report (2007) which noted:

“When young people are disenfranchised or humiliated or made to feel that they have little say and no future, they may become drawn into movements or ideologies that appear to guarantee them a place in the world and give them a solid identity…World-wide an estimated 300,000 people under the age of 18 are now, or have recently been, involved in armed conflict, and another 500,000 have been recruited into military or paramilitary forces. But young people need not be only the victims or perpetrators of violence; they also have an important role as peace-makers.”

Youth ministers and professional youth workers are keen to develop civil peace and security practices in ways that identify young people not as “the problem” but as rights-bearers and stakeholders in re-building a just society. CYMM will serve as a platform for sharing ideas and best practices from Sri Lanka, Northern Uganda and all regions of the Commonwealth.

Today even the most stable of our member countries are grappling with issues of social breakdown and violence, including terrorism. Peace-building has therefore become a vital part of nation-building and successful multiculturalism. It is something we can and must engage in, whether or not our communities are emerging from war – and its future is international.

43 Commonwealth countries participated in the last CYMM held in Nassau, The Bahamas in 2006.

For further information about CYMM 2006 click on the link below:

http://www.thecommonwealth.org/Document/154211/156701/sixth_commonwealth_youth_ministers_meeting/