ECOSOC Youth Forum

The UN Headquarters in April

The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) hosted its yearly Youth Forum, a three-day conference joined by hundreds of young people ready to discuss issues pertaining to climate change, youth inclusion in multilateralism, and AI, among other topics.

The UN says it is all for youth empowerment. UN agencies love bringing young people to the UN who, easily impressionable and emotionally driven, are eager to pledge allegiance to everything set forth by the UN in its 2030 Agenda. It’s a win-win scenario where young people feel important and validated while UN agencies and progressive member states feel legitimized for having the good and innocent on their side.

Evidently, not everything in the 2030 agenda is problematic but many provisions are awkwardly utopian at best and harmful to the dignity of the human person at worst.

ECOSOC Chamber

Youth Advocates and “Their” Opinions

Several panelists took the floor at the Youth Forum to express their wish that the voices of young people be elevated and that they be offered a seat at decision-making tables. Yet the "youth voices" being referenced here are essentially echoing the narratives that progressive adults have taught and encouraged them to emulate.

The truth is UN agencies and progressive leaders don’t just want to hear from youth. They want to hear from progressive youth. It is no coincidence that virtually everyone present shared the same talking points promoted by UN agencies. While it is perfectly normal for young people to receive guidance and training, let us not pretend that they are there to share their “own” ideas and call these efforts for what they are- recruitment of young people into progressive advocacy.

Joining efforts to “change the world” can be truly appealing to young people who, due to their limited life experience, lack a fully developed worldview and are ready to “fight” for anything that sounds important . While it is normal for young people not to have all their values and beliefs clarified, what is abnormal is for adults to push them to become advocates for causes whose implications they have yet not fully grasped.

In his discussion about youth, Aristotle said that “[Young People] have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations; moreover, their hopeful disposition makes them think themselves equal to great things -- and that means having exalted notions. They would always rather do noble deeds than useful ones: Their lives are regulated more by moral feeling than by reasoning -- all their mistakes are in the direction of doing things excessively and vehemently. They overdo everything -- they love too much, hate too much, and the same with everything else.”

The Youth Forum & Abortion Rights

A spokesperson from UNFPA, a UN agency that promotes abortion worldwide, said that “UNFPA had the opportunity to work with 400 young people from across the world around [and talk about] where they thought progress has been achieved in terms of the ICPD program of action that was adopted in 1994…The vision for the world was a vision where sexual reproductive health and rights are fiercely protected within a positive and inclusive environment where gender-responsive health services, including mental well-being truly met young people’s needs but also their pockets and indeed the needs of all with no exclusion.”

When a powerful and widely recognized agency like UNFPA tells young people that they can contribute to evaluating global accessibility to abortion, it bypasses a crucial inquiry into the nature of abortion itself—whether it terminates a human life and whether such action is morally justifiable. Before they know it, young people become advocates for a cause they did not properly consider.

The Youth Forum & Heteronormativity 

Some of the panelists talked about the importance of ensuring that not only young, but also that gender-nonconforming young people are brought up to speak at the UN and other multilateral fora. 

Ropati Charitie, STEM student Columbia University asked that the UN “develop[s] concrete policy recommendations and action plans  that are based on the input and insights of young gender advocates, of young women, of young girls, of young gender-nonconforming individuals.”


Doreen Moraa Moracha,  host of Maisha Health Digital, attributed  the rates of teen pregnancies, sexual and gender-based violence, as well as new HIV infections in Kenya to lack of political goodwill and policies that do not allow sex education in schools.

The UN Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth does not hide its stance on dismantling heteronormativity, either. According to their report, “A Call to Action for the Rights of LGBTQ Youth”, “due to societies’ heteronormative and cisnormative expectations, LGBTIQ youth experience abuse at home and elsewhere; offensive stereotyping and widespread discrimination, including in educational and health care settings; and lack adequate legal protection to address denial of basic human rights.”