Giving Youth a Voice in Rio+20 Conference: Presentation of “Rio 2012 Youth Song World Cup” Initiative @ UN High Level Meeting on Youth, July 25th 2011, 18:15-19:45, Conference Room B NLB, UN HQ NY

Rio 2012 Youth Song World Cup

Music, Collaborative Action and Sharing of Resources for a Sustainable World

‘Global Challenges Song World Cup’ http://www.glocha.info/iaai/index.php/swcglocha  is a grassroots initiative of ‘International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges’ Vienna-Ljubljana www.glocha.info  which gives youth a voice in global efforts to address global challenges and facilitates intercultural understanding based on new social media.

Following the small, but successful, first 350 Climate Protection Song World Cup competition http://www.glocha.info/glocha350/  leading up to the UNFCCC COP 15 in Copenhagen in 2009, IAAI and partners are organizing the second competition in advance of the Rio +20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development www.uncsd2012.org  in 2012.

The “Rio 2012 Youth Song World Cup” side event to UN High Level Meeting on Youth” http://social.un.org/youthyear/high-level-meeting.html  feeds into the deliberations of ongoing ‘International Year of Youth: Dialogue and Mutual Understanding’ http://social.un.org/youthyear/index.html as Rio 2012 YSWC addresses in an innovative way the topics of youth led social development, future prospects of youth and their well-being and youth participation in global governance.

At the HLMY event on July 25th, the Rio 2012 YSWC organizers aim to network and coordinate with other youth networks and initiatives who might be planning similar activities in the run-up to Rio +20 conference in order to avoid duplication of efforts, facilitate the development of some kind of joint strategy on social media, youth and Rio 2012 and thus utilize synergy potentials and increase overall effectiveness of this kind of youth led sustainable development.

Next steps of implementation of the initiative will be a workshop for the preparation of a “Call for Music”, “participation guidelines” and UNCSD related communication and mobilization strategy with youthrepresentatives from around the world (including representatives of UN Alliance of Civilizations Youth http://unaocyouth.org/ , Earth Charter Youth network http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/categories/Youth ,UN Academic Impact – Student initiative ASPIRE http://academicimpact.org , Friendship Ambassadors Foundation www.faf.org, UNCSD Major group “Children and Youth” http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?menu=98 , ACUNS Vienna http://www.acuns.org/about_us/vienna_liaison_office , UNFCCC Youth focal points, Slovenian (and Austrian , to be confirmed) National Commission of UNESCO, UNICEF, UNEP Vienna office et al. September 12 & 13 in Maria Loretto Palace in Klagenfurt am Wörthersee in Carinthia/Austria.

The “Rio 2012 Youth Song World Cup Call for Music” will be launched September 15th 2011 at 6 PM CET at the International Conference “Why and how to Invest in Global Commons?” in combination with the launch of IAAI Global Challenges Center Klagenfurt-Ljubljana which will take place also at Maria Loretto Palace in Klagenfurt am Wörthersee (Austria).

20.12.2011 at 20.12 CET there will be the start of the internet based voting for the overall winner and regional and target group specific winners (categories are to be determined at the workshop in September).Radio and TV stations worldwide will be  approached by youth involved in “Rio 2012 YSWC” to broadcast in an unprecedented global acoustic synchronization effort a 20,12 seconds long audio signal with a frequency of2012 Hertz http://vimeo.com/26466594 thus raising public awareness of  UNCSD 2012 and RIO 2012 YSWC.

 {vimeo}26466594{/vimeo}

In the evening of 25th of March 2012 (one day before the intersessional meeting of the preparatory committee for UN Conference on sustainable development Rio 2012 http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?menu=46&m=3&y=2012  is going to convene) a Rio 2012 YSWC event shall be organized by IAAI and partners in New York together with a workshop/conference on “Global Commons, Knowledge, Ethics & We the People of the United Nations” to which UNCSD preparatory committee members will be invited in order for them to hear Rio 2012 winning songs and their messages and meet with participating youth and global commons experts in order to really make the voice of youth heard in UNCSD Rio +20 conference preparation.

In July 2012 a “GloCha Song World Cup 2012 Gala Night” at Lake Wörthersee/Carinthia (Austria) with the overall winner and winners from different sub-categories and each continent on stage will be organized. The show shall be live- broadcasted all made available to TV stations and via webbroadcasting all around the world and combined with information regarding outcomes of Rio +20 conference thus facilitating informal learning on UN lead sustainable development efforts on a large scale. (Cooperation with Austrian public broadcasting company ORF and other media partners is being negotiated/sought).

Expected Outcomes:

·     Youth empowerment by opening up a communication channel for youth participation in global governance

·     Enhancement of global literacy and (social) media literacy of participating youth

·     Intercultural dialogue and trust building for international negotiations on sustainable development

·     Broad media coverage

·     Public awareness raising and positive political momentum for Rio 2012 UNCSD

·     Documentation of contribution of youth activism to (global) sustainable development efforts

·     Promotion of (decentralized) youth led social development and philanthropy (development of a global GloCha Youth centers network for youth led mobilization and documentation of collaborative sustainable development efforts)

·     Specific added value for Austria and Slovenia: promotion of Klagenfurt am Wörthersee (September conference and YSWC launch venue Schloss Maria Loretto www.maria-loretto.at, Ljubljana www.ljubljana.si/en/ and Southeast Europe as global touristic destinations for (youth) cultural tourism

Possibilities for Involvement in Organization of the initiative:

This is an open not-for-profit initiative and individuals and institutions wishing to contribute intellectually (e.g. with expertise regarding innovative ways of using social media, fund raising and campaigning), financially or otherwise are welcome to visit our homepage www.glocha.info and to contact us at office@glocha.info  with their suggestions/cooperation offers.

Note:

Access to Rio 2012 YSWC event at UN HLMY event on 25th is restricted due to UN security regulations, visit http://social.un.org/youthyear/high-level-meeting.html for details.

The event will however be recorded and made available as video-on-demand asap.

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Other IAAI activities and events related to Rio 2012 YSWC:

Round table discussion on “Engaging Global Citizens in Sustainable Development Governance: Human Rights and Human Responsibilities” (the rationale of the Round table event as well as the list of speakers can be found below) at this year’s Annual meeting of Academic Council on the United Nations System ACUNS http://www.acuns.org/annual_meeting/annual_meeting_2011 in Waterloo/Ontario (Canada) June 3rd 2011 – see (video) documentation at http://www.glocha.info/iaai/index.php/component/content/article/84-reportiaaiacuns2011

IAAI Workshop “Rio 2012- Window of Opportunity for a Multi-Stakeholder Partnership on Global Commons Growth” at 64th Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference, Bonn, 3-5 September 2011;www.un.org/wcm/content/site/ngoconference/

ASO Ljubljana & UNESCO Conference “Imagining the Worst: Foresight, Ethics and extreme Climate Scenarios” March 1-3 2011 in Bled/Slovenia http://www.participate.si/globaldialogue-ccfuturesandethics/

Facilitation of workshops on ‘Global Citizenship Ethics’ and ‘Youth activism and Entertainment Industries’ at UN Alliance of Civilizations Summer School 2010 in Aveirohttp://www.glocha.info/iaai/index.php/component/content/article/51-latest-news/71-unaocsummerschool

Paper presentation Miroslav Polzer “Global Citizenship Ethics for Effective Global Governance – From Ideas to Action” Paper presented at the International Conference “Ethical Framework for a Sustainable World Earth Charter + 10”, Ahmedabad, November 2010, Workshop “Global Challenges and Global Governance” http://www.glocha.info./Paper_Polzer_ECAhmedabad.pdf

Award Ceremony of “350 Climate Protection Song World Cup” www.glocha.info/glocha350/ at International Conference “Teaching Climate Change and the United Nations System”, May 17 2010, National Parliament, Belgrade (Serbia)  www.investsciencesee.info/ccandun/

Workshop “Capacity Building on Social Innovation Research and Management in South East Europe”, May 4th 2011, Ohrid, Macedonia  http://www.aso.zsi.at/aktuelles/3771.html

Project initiative “GloBalkCan Youth Global Challenges Song World Cup“ (i.e. a “Global Challenges Song World Cup” in Education for Sustainable Development in UNESCO schools in Southeast Europe which shall promote Global Citizenship and Global Social Responsibility among youth in SEE and harness their creative potentials for the good fo global community). The project has been accepted by SEE countries to be part of UN Alliance of Civilizations SEE Regional Action Plan on Intercultural Dialogue and Understanding.

Attachments:

• Draft Agenda of the GloCha Week 2011 – Preparatory workshop for Rio 2012 YSWC