On Friday, April 27th, the local media met with Anguilla’s two youth representatives, Rohan Petty and Jasmin Ruan, who attended the Commonwealth Youth Forum held in London from April 16th to April 18th. The Commonwealth Youth Forum falls under the auspices of the bi-annual Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which was this year chaired by Britain’s Prime Minister, Theresa May.
Ms. Jasmin Ruan is President of the Anguilla Youth Council, while Mr. Rohan Petty is Vice Dean of the Council, as well as a National Youth Ambassador. They both left Anguilla on April 13th and returned on April 21st. They participated in the London forum which attracted youth from some 53 countries of the Commonwealth, as well as three overseas territories including Anguilla, Bermuda and Gibraltar.
Ms. Ruan reported: “Overall, the event held in London was the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Within that framework there were various branches like: the business forum; the women’s forum; and the youth forum. It was the youth forum which our presence there contributed to mainly. Essentially, the youth of the Commonwealth countries came together to address various issues that not only concerned the youth, but which generally concerned the societies in which we live as well.
“Four important areas discussed were: ‘fairness’, ‘security’, ‘prosperity’ and ‘sustainability’. These were discussed in break-out sessions where we were able to put our views forward for developing ideas for possible programs that would fit within these topic areas.
“Within the framework of the discussions, there was a facility document called the ‘zero draft’. The discussions were structured in such a way that every day we would go through that draft which related to one particular topic which we chose to discuss out of the four areas. We would discuss and work to find solutions, and we would then select workable ideas that were put to the Heads of Government Meeting for further general discussions.
“In general, the purpose of the whole forum was for us to learn from each other, learn from the panelists, and then work together to find solutions to the target issues in order to have the youth’s voice heard at the Head of Government Meeting.”
Mr. Petty stated: “After the breakout sessions, and once it was decided which policies we would bring forward, we were referred to the Youth Council where the general assembly met, and all the Commonwealth countries with voting rights would cast votes to confirm whether or not the ideas at hand were relevant ideas that they wished to put forward to the Heads of Government.
“We have not gotten any response or feed-back from the Heads as yet. There were thirteen ideas that were pushed for polices, and all of them were passed by voting. So we assume that they have been actually presented, but we have not gotten any verification as yet. However, we do anticipate responses before the next forum.”
When asked if these ideas were geared toward enhancing the living conditions and wellbeing of the youth in our societies, both Mr. Petty and Ms. Ruan responded by saying yes, but not just for youth exclusively. They are intended to address living conditions of Commonwealth people at large. They said that the ideas were presented on issues that they thought were of importance. They stressed that presenting the ideas does not mean that they would be actually enacted as policies, but that at least they were given an opportunity to share their views and to let their voices be heard.
