{"id":122486,"date":"2017-10-09T23:51:10","date_gmt":"2017-10-10T03:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=122486"},"modified":"2017-10-09T23:51:10","modified_gmt":"2017-10-10T03:51:10","slug":"partake-in-peacebuilding-efforts-ex-un-sec-gen-urges-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/10\/09\/partake-in-peacebuilding-efforts-ex-un-sec-gen-urges-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"Partake in peacebuilding efforts, ex UN sec gen urges youth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The secretary-general challenged the young people to never lose hope and be \u2018ambitious\u2019 to pursue justice and peace. (Photo: kofiannanfoundation.org<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a study revealed that many young people in the world experience violent conflict and live in fear of terrorism in their countries, former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan called on the youth to partake in reconciliation and peacebuilding efforts to end violent conflicts worldwide.<\/p>\n

In his speech at the One Young World 2017 Peace Day Plenary Session in Bogota, Colombia, Annan expressed dismay over the One Young World survey of 2,000 young people around the world in which more than half of respondents said they had experienced conflict during their lifetime and 60 percent lived in fear of terrorism in their countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite all of the optimism and passion brought by the young people attending the One Young World summit this year in Bogota, we cannot ignore the fact that we live in troubled times,\u201d Annan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would urge you all to remember the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who reminded us that “in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace.\u201d So put your remarkable energy, your insight, your passion in the service of reconciliation and peace,\u201d the secretary general added.<\/p>\n

The One Young World Summit is an annual gathering of world\u2019s young leaders with the objective of sharing and formulating solutions to the pressing issues that the world faces.<\/p>\n

Annan also stressed that the root of today\u2019s human suffering is violent conflict, saying the top \u2018major drivers\u2019 of armed conflict are political factors.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcross the world, armed conflicts rage, killing thousands, displacing millions, and challenging our collective conscience. The root of much of today\u2019s human suffering is violent conflict. It not only robs people of their lives but disfigures society in other ways,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we examine today\u2019s global landscape we can see that political factors are often a major driver of armed conflict. Too many regimes fail to represent the needs and hopes of their people, through oppression and corruption. Conflict is often caused by having unequal access to political power,\u201d Annan added.<\/p>\n

Annan also said that encouraging inclusive democracy is a way to avoid conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cCitizens must believe that they are their nation\u2019s own agents of change and that the ballot box is their strongest tool. The heart of democracy is the political right of its people to be equally represented and to trust in the decisions of their elected leaders,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

At the end of the speech, the secretary general challenged the young people to never lose hope and be \u2018ambitious\u2019 to pursue justice and peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need hope but also strong leadership,\u201d Annan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd let me repeat; you are never too young to lead and never too old to learn,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a study revealed that many young people in the world experience violent conflict and live in fear of terrorism …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":122488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[26866,329,5665,26864,26865,287],"class_list":["post-122486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","tag-bogota","tag-colombia","tag-conflict","tag-former-united-nations-secretary-general-kofi-annan","tag-one-young-world-2017","tag-terrorism","mauthors-carlo-jacob-molina","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}