How ASPIRE can promote dialogue among civilizations.

• Author: Jeremiah, Kyle
• Position: Action by Students to Promote Innovation and Reform through Education

Three billion young people stood on a single stage at the opening plenary session of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20 Summit) in Rio de Janeiro this past June. They demanded change and called on world leaders to take action to ensure that a sustainable future for our children and our grandchildren was secured. The voice of those three billion people under the age of 25 was somewhat meek, yet confident, and had a New Zealand accent. Indeed, seventeen year-old Brittany Trilford let leaders know that we cannot accept any more broken or empty promises. Brittany might have challenged leaders from an environmental standpoint, but as she was addressing the conference, young people in Europe struggled to find jobs as the beleaguered region continued to grapple with its ongoing debt crisis. Young people in the Middle East were trying to see through the settling dust following the Arab uprisings. Tensions over an alleged Iranian nuclear weapons programme continued to simmer, as biting sanctions from Western powers continued to affect the large population of youth there.

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In June 2012, when United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged world leaders not to forget that time was the scarcest resource of all, he was referring to the urgency of the need for an international framework for sustainable development and for the establishment of a green economy. But it seemed no coincidence that his timely statements came on the heels of other storms brewing on the international economic and humanitarian fronts. He has led several choruses of voices calling for peace in unstable territories and between countries, such as when he advised that Turkey and Syria exercise restraint following the downing that month of a Turkish airplane by Syrian forces which saw Turkey reviewing its military options, among notable recent events. The year has had its share of unsettled relations as pressure mounted on various international bodies, including the United Nations, to intervene in certain situations. Still, in the midst of it all, Mr. Ban took a little time out to urge young people to "make some noise", Of course, he made the statement in the context of the Rio+20 Summit, where he emphasized the importance of young people in shaming their leaders into doing more to secure a sustainable future. His words, however, can be applied to every other situation affecting humanity.

The Secretary-General fully understands...