The UN’s Good Offices Mission has helped young people across Cyprus to unite around shared concerns on the environment, Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo said while briefing a Security Council debate on “The role of young people in addressing security challenges in the Mediterranean.”
The debate was convened by Malta who holds the Security Council presidency for April.
DiCarlo referred to Cyprus with regard to the youth’s leading role in influencing, advocating, and demanding greater political will and concrete action on climate change. ‘In Cyprus, for example, our Good Offices Mission has helped young people across the divide to unite around shared concerns over environmental sustainability and to prepare joint positions for COP28 last December’ she noted.
She told Council members that it is estimated that one out of four young people around the world is affected by violence or armed conflict.
‘Especially women, she added, are more vulnerable to neglect, abuse, and exploitation, and young people a
re more likely to be recruited by armed groups when they have no other livelihood opportunities’ she said.
DiCarlo pointed out that these grim facts and figures are borne out in the unfolding calamity in one part of the Mediterranean – the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas and the war in Gaza has destroyed the lives of many young people.
According to UN’s report 70% of the population in Gaza is under the age of 30 and almost all have been exposed to unprecedented levels of trauma, violence, disease, and food insecurity.
Source: Cyprus News Agency