must provide a Charter that demonstrates its commitment to youth. The G20 Youth Charters should be based on the topics of: • • • •
Youth Empowerment Youth Employment Youth Education Youth and Environment
Within the Youth Charter, governments must reflect on how they: • •
• •
Enable a youth governance body, that independently engages youth in the decision-‐ making process and enables their voice to be heard at national level, Provide a strong programme of political education and leadership opportunities. Governments must also demonstrate how they can engage youth from all social, fi-‐ nancial, belief and geographical backgrounds, Offer a range of political engagement tools -‐ namely online methods, Ensure that young people are heard on all policies across government, not merely is-‐ sues considered as “youth policies” such as education.
One example of good practice is the EU’s Citizens Initiative where citizens (including youth) can directly propose legislation within the EU. This model should be spread across the world and include financial empowerment through youth-‐led budgets.
Global Security Risks We support the promotion of peace and security around the word. While we recognise that there are a number of global security risks that hold great importance in the world arena, we would like to put forward the following topics for discussion at the G8 & G20 Youth Summits 2012 in Washington DC: • • •
Resource-‐based conflict Terrorism Security consequences of climate change
As our planet continues to face sustainability challenges, and our population increases, con-‐ flict resulting from the scarcity of vital resources including water and food is an increasing global security risk. The uncertainty around natural resource availability presents significant vulnerabilities including hunger, thirst, disease, death and degraded eco-‐systems.
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