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The Global Citizens Youth Assembly (GCYA) was held from the 18th to the 20th of August, 2011 at Visthar, Bengaluru, India. The event was organized as follow up and continuity of the Asian Citizens Assembly held in August 2010 which was supported by our partners Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation (FPH) who continue to support our programs. GCYA is held every year as the concluding event of the WE BUILD 2011 4-credit study abroad program. The students of the credit program were engaged in organizing and conducting the Assembly. This year the Organizers and Partners included, Global Citizens for Sustainable Development (GCSD), Vedike Eco-Residential School, The University at Albany, Student Volunteers Abroad, Forum for a new World Governance and Oxfam India.

This assembly provided a platform for young individuals from various states in India, as well as different countries of the world to come together and talk about the happenings in their own local communities. It gave participants the opportunity to meet, interact and engage with each other and discuss three important themes prevalent in our globalized world today. The themes of the Assembly were:

• Role of Media for Social Change
• Green Economy in the Context of Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development
• Youth and MDGs

In developing a cross-cultural understanding of these themes, the youth attempted to obtain a practical action component to implement sustainable development initiatives worldwide.

Executive Summary

Themes of the Event

• Role of Media for Social Change
• Green Economy in the Context of Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development
• Youth and MDGs

Organizers & Partners

Global Citizens for Sustainable Development, VEDIKE, Oxfam India, Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation (FPH), Forum for a new World Governance, University at Albany, Student Volunteers Abroad, Glasgow and LOYAC, Kuwait.

Number of Participants: GCYA is a process more than a conference where more than 1000 youth participants take part virtually through social networking sites and then for quality purpose few are selected to meet person to person in Bangalore. During the assembly we had an attendance of 150 youth college students joined by their faculty members, few young professionals, freelancers, environmentalists, social workers, etc.

Participating Countries

Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, China, USA, UK, France, Chile and India.

Concept of the Assembly

The youth represents half the population of the world and therefore have an important role to play in bringing about social change. Therefore, the Global Citizens Youth Assembly aimed at creating a platform for the youth to come forward and talk about their country, to develop a cross-cultural understanding of the themes of the assembly as well as to share their own personal work.

Objectives:

• To dialogue and discuss about the three themes of the Assembly
• To create a platform for local and global youth to represent themselves and express their ideas for social change
• To create a sense of brotherhood among the participating nations
• To make room for a cultural exchange among the youth of the participating nations

Conclusion: In the three days of Global Citizens Youth Assembly the participating delegates engaged in various activities such as panel and group discussions, a workshop on the ‘Charter of the Peoples of the Earth,’ that is a movement to be presented and declared at the Rio+20 Earth Summit, the Bangalore MDG Champions Competition, an open session for youth to represent their own personal work, the Global Citizens Art & Cultural Festival and finally concluded with field excursion through interaction and games with the children of migrant workers at Living Hope Children’s Home, Bangalore.

Participants were very happy with the Urban-Rural and South-North link concept through the WE BUILD program and how it concludes with the Assembly and again a follow up through MDG champions program. They were inspired to do action oriented projects as such and not just have assemblies or conferences just to meet and interact.

Follow Up:

• GCSD will help and facilitate the MDG Champions to meet their goals of the projects. These projects will encourage other youth participants to work on similar projects.
• The People’s Charter will have further discussions and engagement of youth participants to voice their opinions and to be heard by the UN Member States at the Rio+20 Earth Summit.
• The Facebook page will be used as a tool to keep the momentum going and shall be a useful tool to plan the GCYA 2010 much better.

Workshop on the Charter of the Peoples of the Earth

A preparatory workshop discussing on the Charter of the Peoples’ of the Earth was co-organized by Gustavo Marin of the Forum for a new World Governance on 27th July 2011 and Anugraha John of GCSD. Participants attended that workshop, continued the discussions during the Assembly. Emily Finnegan and Nikia Brown facilitated a workshop discussing the upcoming U.N. Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June of 2012. Corresponding with the U.N. Summit will be a Peoples Summit which will include discussion on the formulation of a Charter of the People’s of the Earth, outlaying the values and principles guiding human thought and action in the 21st century. After presenting a draft of the charter to the group, participants engaged in discussion modifying and reformulating the document so as to more adequately represent the voice of the people in Rio the following summer.