The Younger Generation at the G8 With UNICEF
27/03/2009
The Junior 8 Competition is on: the international contest sponsored by UNICEF will enable its young winners to represent their countries at the Junior 8 Summit 2009, which will be held in Italy. This will be the fifth edition of the J8, and the young people from the G8 countries presenting their ideas and recommendations to the world leaders will also be joined by boys and girls from other, non-G8 countries, including China, Brazil, India and South Africa. The J8 delegates will debate the issues featuring on the G8 agenda prior to the Summit on L'Aquila and will submit their proposals to the leaders. A team of four boys and girls will then be picked and will have the chance to meet the heads of state and government on La Maddalena and discuss the recommendations that emerge from the J8 with them.
Each group that wishes to enter the competition must draw up a proposal on how to address the key issues due for discussion at the G8. The topics this year are: AIDS, climate change, poverty and economic development. The young people may also select other issues that they consider important and submit them to the G8 leaders’ attention.
When launching the competition, Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini stressed that her department "will be in the front line in promoting this important exercise in youth participation in an international event." Youth Minister Giorgia Meloni highlighted the fact that the J8 gave the younger generation a chance to “get its voice heard" and to "remind the generations ahead of it about the goal that every real political leader has to have: to do his or her utmost to leave the young a better world than the one they themselves inherited.”
UNICEF Italia President Vincenzo Spadafora pointed out that this year’s Junior 8 Summit took on crucial significance, as it coincided with the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
To enter the competition, proposals must be sent in by Friday, 22 May 2009. For further information on the J8 Competition selection criteria and to submit the entry form, consult the www.j8summit.com/it site.
