Five young activists who successfully bring about peace, reconciliation and sustainability will share their powerful stories and be awarded a prize for the remarkable impact they have driven in their communities.
A multimedia kit containing license-free b-roll footage of the activists and their work on the ground, video soundbites (both in 16:9 and 9:16 formats), a video news release, photographs and background information is now available here. A video news release featuring highlights of the Summit will be uploaded on 16 November at 16:00 CET on the same link.
At a time when the world is torn by conflict, and against a backdrop of climate emergency, the fifth edition of the Young Activists Summit focuses on peace and reconciliation. The Summit will reward five young activists who have found concrete ways to advance peace within their communities, and reconcile humans with nature:
• Maung Sawyedollah, 22, Myanmar – Rohingya people’s rights
• Maïmouna Ba, 27, Burkina Faso – Peacebuilding in the Sahel region
• Nisreen Elsaim, 29, Sudan – Climate action for peace
• Francisco Vera, 14, Colombia – Environmental protection
• Roshni Perween, 25, India – Fight against child marriage
More information about their stories and work can be found in this multimedia kit.
Four of the five laureates will participate in the Young Activists Summit in person at the Palais des Nations on 16 November 2023, while Maung Sawyeddollah, a stateless young man who is unable to travel to Geneva, will participate online. All Laureates will be available for interviews in the run-up to the event, and on the day of the Summit.
The Summit will be moderated by Trisha Shetty, an Indian human rights activist, founder of the youth-led NGO SheSays, and Vogue India’s Woman of the Year. She led the #lahukalagaan campaign, which received over 22 million impressions in less than 24 hours on Twitter, and successfully led the Indian government to declare sanitary napkins tax-free.
#YAS23 will bring together hundreds of young people from the Geneva region and many more online. The Summit will be streamed live in Spanish, English, Arabic, and French. The first four editions combined gathered participants from 157 countries.
The Summit is organized by the United Nations Office at Geneva, the NGO dev.tv, Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS), and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.
