WHAT IS THE WORLD YOUTH PARLIAMENT?The World Youth Parliament (WYP) consists of creating a forum where young people, whatever their ideology, culture, or social condition might be, can come together to discuss issues that concern them and manifest their conclusion in such way that their voice may be heard worldwide.
In order to achieve this, WYP intends:
• To create a permanent forum on local, national, and worldwide levels where all young people can discuss and reflect on topics that concern them and to address themes arising from the common human experience of a life lived and shared with others • To provide the means of voicing their conclusions so that may be heard worldwide • To examine analytically the society in which we live in the light of distinct international declarations of human rights, political Constitutions, the Gospel, the sacred scripture of various religions, etc. • To describe the social contradictions relative to the practical application of the human rights • To foster a reflection on human rights with the aim of searching for their foundation in the values of love and unity • To favor a dialogue between young people oriented towards reaching an agreement on vital subjects which are at the center of their concerns • To promote unity and peace among young people as a means for reaching universal agreements. |
WHY PARTICIPATE?We often find ourselves promoting values, in our private world, waiting for the outside world to be automatically transformed; or we spend our life preoccupied exclusively with ourselves thinking that the society is just a stage where we recite, with more or less virtue, our part of the script.
We can all easily agree that people need to be perfected as persons. Nonetheless, if we understand this perfecting of the human person as looking into oneself we will easily fall into the ideologies that dominate political, cultural and social life. On the contrary, the human person is “someone with consciousness of someone” (Fernando Rielo), and open to “another,” to a “+” of itself. Human persons are always in a relation, on the transcendental level, with the absolute Love that defines and constitutes them and, stemming from this foundation, with their neighbors with whom they form family, society, and civilization. Consequently, a vision of a political community as a reflection of individualism would be reductive, limiting, and unnatural. If we conceive of people simply as individuals, as separated and incommunicable substances, the relation between them is degraded to a mere external, inessential, fragile, passing relation. Every obstacle in communication ought to be overcome because the foundation of social and political life cannot be a generic “common good” but a real and essential communion between all people. Therefore, it is necessary to go back to the drawing board and write the foundations for new constitutions for a new civilization. We are not concerned with implementing a multitude of abstractions that subjugate the declaration of human rights and duties. Rather, the goal that we have set before us is to discover the openness of the human person on a transcendental level and educate ourselves in living it so that the foundation for our living together truly become manifest. |
WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?
This project has as its addressees young people 17-30 years of age.
Requisites:
1. Participants are asked to discuss current and vital topics in need of in-depth examination with an attitude free from prejudice and individual interests.
2. Participants are to have an attitude of respect and healthy interest towards different points of view.
3. Participants are to commit themselves to making a genuine effort to reach an agreement on the subjects discussed.
Requisites:
1. Participants are asked to discuss current and vital topics in need of in-depth examination with an attitude free from prejudice and individual interests.
2. Participants are to have an attitude of respect and healthy interest towards different points of view.
3. Participants are to commit themselves to making a genuine effort to reach an agreement on the subjects discussed.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE WYP
WYP’s work is coordinated on three levels: (1) local meetings, (2) national parliaments (NYP), and (3) international plenary sessions.
Each of these levels has its proper program and contributes in a specific way to reaching the general objectives.
1. On the local level, periodic meetings are held, generally, to consider proposed subjects, guided and coordinated by the WYP Commissions of the country, while being open to the participation of outside youth and other associations. These local meetings can be developed in the form of study groups; seminars, communal encounters, etc… The groups (sections of Idente Youth, groups and other associations) that work on a given topic of study during the year will send their representatives to the plenary sessions (national or international).
2. On the national level, the National Parliament of Youth (NYP) is held involving all groups that have worked for WYP. The tangible result of a Plenary National Session is a Manifesto-NYP which combines the contributions of the collegial work developed in the local meetings as well as in the Plenary National Session.
3. On the international level: the international plenary session has as its mission gathering and synthesizing all the work previously developed on the national level.
Each of these levels has its proper program and contributes in a specific way to reaching the general objectives.
1. On the local level, periodic meetings are held, generally, to consider proposed subjects, guided and coordinated by the WYP Commissions of the country, while being open to the participation of outside youth and other associations. These local meetings can be developed in the form of study groups; seminars, communal encounters, etc… The groups (sections of Idente Youth, groups and other associations) that work on a given topic of study during the year will send their representatives to the plenary sessions (national or international).
2. On the national level, the National Parliament of Youth (NYP) is held involving all groups that have worked for WYP. The tangible result of a Plenary National Session is a Manifesto-NYP which combines the contributions of the collegial work developed in the local meetings as well as in the Plenary National Session.
3. On the international level: the international plenary session has as its mission gathering and synthesizing all the work previously developed on the national level.
