The General Assembly hearings with the Civil society, private sector and NGo s has been an important step into the participation of civil society into the UN system. Since civil society will not participate on M+5 Summit for security reasons,

However not all the countries took their responsibility seriously. Only the ambassador of Egypt, Norway and Sweden were almost always present and interacting with the civil society.

The hearings were divided into clusters according to the Secretary General last report, " In Larger freedom" . My cluster was freedom from fear. Of 38 speakers two of us were highly focused on youth.

I basically exposed about the need of youth participation as a long term strategy to end conflict. Also the need of youth to participate in peacebuilding process. The president of GA received our proposal and also the future president of General Assembly and the actual Swedish ambassador.

I was great! Even people that was not on youth advocay mentioned our cause, like Janaina (from Brasil). The rapporteur noticed it, and I hope that at least we can manage to include youth in the next declaration.

There is a long way to go. Youth advocacy needs much more lobby and pressure, but our main argument is the same: sustainability of everything comes of investing in youth.

If you want to see the hearings http://www.un.org/webcast/ga.html