As I mentioned in the last post, there have been heaps of young people at the UN this week. Many of these young people are representing Non-Governmental Organisations from their own country.

My whole week has been dedicated to sharing and talking to everyone about Australian young people. Many have no idea about Australia, or what it means to be Australian (not that I really know), so it is great to talk with them about it.

Most NGOs, I must say, are from Europe - representing various Youth Councils. They have been here running events (which usually simply consist of slideshow presentations and a bit of a chat after) for UN country delegations (the people who are always at the UN) to attend.

The events have usually revolved around how to involve young people in decision making. Young people not as leaders of the future, but leaders now. In fact, so many of the events have focused on this, that it nearly almost feels like a cliche now.

Yesteray I saw side-events from the Swedish Youth Council, as well as the Slatina (in Croatia) Youth Council. Unfortuntaly these events were largely attended by the young people who had come in for the week. It was a kind of preaching to the converted.

Some of the most interesting side-events involved African young people running events on how to involve young people in decision-making to do with the very big issues many of these countries face.

One of these issues is HIV/AIDS. I won’t dull you with all the statistics, but in sub-saharan Africa approximately 7.4% of people are infected with HIV/AIDS. Likewise, sub-saharan Africa holds 10% of the world’s population, but has 75% of HIV-AIDS cases.

I met a great guy from Lesotho, which is the country with the highest per capita rate of infection, who explained to me how devestating the reality of the situation is. It was great to hear the story from a person, rather than a UN statistic. The spread seems to be catastrophic and unrelenting.

When surrounded by all this talk of HIV/AIDS, it almost seems arrogant to discuss the old cliche of how to involve young people in decision-making. A total luxury. Almost unimportant when you think about the bigger picture.

But I attended two sidevents run by African young people which changed my mind. One was on HIV/AIDS, and the other on children in armed conflict (both as actors in the violence, and victims).

These side-events were discussing how integral it was for young people to be involved in the decision-making in these communities is sub-saharan Africa, if anything is going to change. In many of these countries ravaged by everything the world has to throw at them, young people (12-25 years) comprise over 50% of populations.

It is young people that are the ones that are being infected HIV/AIDS. It is young people that are being recruited, trafficked and smuggled for armed conflict. To change anything, these African young people were saying, young people MUST not only be included, but heavily involved in the way such problems are tackled.

This is young people being involved in decision-making on a very REAL level.

It seemed like such an important message not only for governments to hear, but also the United Nations. In such a heavily bureaucratised system, the message seemed even more clear, and even more important.

With such a focus on HIV/AIDS in Africa at the UN, involving the passion and expertise of such young people is not only a wonderful resource for the UN, but possibly our only hope.

I give my statement on behalf Australia and Australian young people to the UN later today. It is in the big and very beautiful General Assembly hall (the main one). The tummy is swirling and the butterflies are taking-off. I’ll post the statement very soon for you all to see.