The IYCW was invited to the 41st UNESCO general assembly which took place at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France from 9-24 November 2021. As an official partner of UNESCO, the IYCW was invited to provide its views on the issues currently under the attention of UNESCO.
Sarah Prenger, the IYCW president, shared her views on education, work and youth. She appreciated the director general of UNESCO highlighting the impact of educational disruption due to the pandemic on almost two billion learners.
“I thank the director general of UNESCO for pointing out that in the year 2020, 1.6 billion learners were affected by an unprecedented educational disruption. These data just show how billions of people around the world are far from living in dignity,” Sarah said.
This year's International Labour Conference is being held in two segments. The second segment is running from 25th November to 11th December 2021.
Errol Alonzo, Carolin Moch and Sarah Prenger represented the IYCW in the second segment of this international assembly. On this occasion, Errol delivered a statement responding to the report of the Director-General of the ILO on inequality.
Starting his statement, Errol confirmed the Director-General’s report.
“Young workers from all over the world confirm the report. They confirm, for example, that workers with temporary contracts have been the first to be laid off; that informal workers have had to choose between starving and risking infection; that temporary workers on a weekly basis are not really able to interact with fellows; that a department leader was degraded after telling her employer about her pregnancy; and that a qualified platform worker is working without a contract.”
IYCW News - On 12th July the NGO-UNESCO liaison Committee organized a preparation meeting for the 75th anniversary event which will take place this coming September by virtual means.
The NGO-UNESCO liaison committee works with more than 240 NGOs, but only 40 attended this meeting when asked to delegate young people under the age of 30. It is obvious that the NGOs need to include more young people in their organizations and structures.
The objective of the meeting was to develop a Position Paper on Youth and Guidelines for Advocacy to be presented at UNESCO’s 75th Anniversary celebrations. During the meeting, the delegates split into 4 different breakout rooms to discuss more specifically the position paper and the launching of the event.
The IYCW leader Basma Louis attended the meeting and brought the proposal of the movement to be included in the position paper.
The forum of the Pacific Island Civil Society Consultation on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is a response by civil society stakeholders strongly endorsing dignity for safe, orderly and regular migration into and from the Pacific Region. The said regional consultation was organized in Fiji from November 2 to 3, 2017, by leading civil society organizations such as the Migrant Forum in Asia, Justice and Peace, Sydney Asia Pacific Migration Center and others. The Asia Pacific International Young Christian Workers movement was represented by Nanang Ibrahim.
The forum gathered representatives from non-governmental organizations, youth movements, trade unions, educational institutions, the business sector, and other individuals who deliberated the key issues on human rights and good governance relating to the implementation process of the UN Global Compact on Migration.
Last Friday 15th February, the International Secretariat (IS) team members met with representatives of World Solidarity Movement (WSM) as part of the process of integration of the new IS members. The meeting took place at the IYCW office in Schaerbeek, Belgium.
The WSM representatives were Bart, Ben and Jeroen. Bart and Ben are responsible for WSM’s international action department while Jeroen is a north-south cooperation program coordinator. All the IS outgoing and new team members were present at the meeting.
There were two strategic items on the agenda of the meeting: international political action and the cooperation program between WSM and the IYCW.
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As it does every year, the IYCW attended the 106th session of International Labour Conference held in Geneva in June 2017. Below is the IYCW-WSM joint statement on labour migration, read by Antonio Zela, a YCW activist from Paraguay and continental coordinator.
“I thank you on behalf of the International Young Christian Workers (IYCW) and World Solidarity (WSM) for giving me the opportunity to make a joint statement to this Committee. We would also like to thank the Office for the report prepared for this general discussion.
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An interreligious conference was held in Uganda from April 25-28, 2017 to deliberate on working conditions in relation to the ILO future of work initiative and the sustainable development goals. It was co-organized by the Justice and Peace Department of the Uganda Episcopal Conference, Kolping International and the International Labor Organization, with the participation of around 65 people from various countries of Africa. Doriabelle Yongala, representative of the International Young Christian Workers Panafrican Team (Panaf), presented the reality of young workers in Gabon and shared the continental analysis on the growing unemployment rate, informalization and the increasing life and work precariousness facing young people.