Global Youth Representation

The British Youth Council provides a platform for young people in the UK to be represented internationally on the issues that matter to them.

We believe that young people should have a say on the decisions that affect them and the issues they care about. Many of these issues are either global in nature, such as poverty and climate change, directly affected by global events, such as the Covid-19 Pandemic, or dealt with at international forums such as the Council of Europe (CoE), Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) or the United nations.

UK Young Ambassadors

The Young Ambassadors are a team of four elected young people aged 18-25 representing the UK in international settings.

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OUR AMBASSADORS

Elif True

UK Young Ambassador to the Commonwealth

William Awomoyi

UK Young Ambassador to the Commonwealth

Sylvia Cullen

UK Young Ambassador to Europe

Sylvia is a 21 year old Political and Social Sciences scholarship student at the University of York. Alongside her studies, she is a UK Young Ambassador and Lead Delegate to the European Youth Forum, representing, advocating for and voting on behalf of the young people of the United Kingdom. Prior to this, she was a member of Youth Parliament for Leeds, debate lead for Yorkshire and The Humber and an ambassador on a US-UK social cohesion exchange with the US embassy. Additionally, she currently works as a singing teacher and Musical Director at a stage school and as a 1-1 carer for children with complex additional needs.

Maurizio Cuttin

UK Young Ambassador to Europe

My name is Maurizio, I’m 20 years old and study Politics, Philosophy, Law (PPL) at the University of Warwick. I’m also an aspiring diplomat, with a background in youth engagement, who’s passionate about human rights, peace and international security. In September 2021, I was elected as your new UK Young Ambassador to the European Youth Forum, a role I’m honoured to have, and will seek to do you all proud in!

OUR ASSOCIATES

Ruhi

Associate

I am the president of the International Association of Physics Students, an NGO with 66,000 members around the world. I love to get involved in a wide variety of youth advocacy and empowerment projects, which is why I love working with the British Youth Council. I am a delegate for Youth for TPNW and am also on the Management Team of the Informal Forum for International Student Organisations, where I am working to improve communication between youth organisations in order to give young people a more powerful and unified voice.

European Youth Forum

The British Youth Council holds the UK seat on the European Youth Forum (YFJ) where we meet with national youth councils and international youth organisations across Europe. Sylvia Cullen and Maurizio Cuttin are the UK representatives to the European Youth Forum. Council of Members (COMEM): The Council of Members of YFJ meet every 6 months. The UK, via the British Youth Council, has one voting seat and one observer who vote on Policy Papers and Resolutions, attend / host a variety of regional bloc meetings and hold the Board, Advisory Council on Youth and FCC to account. Every two years, there are elections to the Advisory Council on Youth, FCC, and Board. The European Youth Forum runs a range of other events such as training, conferences, workshops and seminars on key youth issues often in partnership with the Council of Europe, European Presidencies, European Commission and the United Nations. Members of the British Youth Council often have access to these training events and conferences.

Commonwealth

The Commonwealth Youth Forum takes place every two years before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. It provides young Commonwealth citizens with the opportunity to discuss issues, shares their experiences, builds consensus and identifies best practices. Delegates from all Commonwealth nations attend the event and a final communiqué document is produced and presented to Heads of Government.

The Commonwealth Youth Council (CYC) is a pan-regional youth platform made up of representatives from national youth councils from the 53 members of the Commonwealth of Nations. The CYC represents 1.2 billion young people from across Commonwealth countries and is supported by the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Elif True and Will Awomoyi are the UK representatives to the Commonwealth Youth Forum and Council.

Youth delegates

A youth delegate is a young person that is given formal negotiator accreditation as part of the UK delegation at international summits such as the G8/G20 and the United Nations. The British Youth Council previously supported young people to attend the Y20 summit in Mexico ahead of the 2012 G20. .

The British Youth Council seeks to send youth representatives young people at relevant forum and platform as and when an opportunity arises.  We do this either by calling on our pool of elected Ambassadors and Trustees or by putting out an open call to young people.  These opportunities will be shared on the British Youth Council website and on our Twitter and Facebook pages.

Youth delegates are the voice of young people and can play an unprecedented role in influencing a country’s official position and can be inspiring and motivating for young people while helping to translate complicated policy language into something accessible and relevant to people’s daily lives.

In early 2022, the UK Young Ambassador team, launched a campaign aimed at lobbying Government departments and Ministers for an official elected UN youth delegate programme in the UK similar to other countries.

Information

For more information and latest news follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

For more information contact the International team on international@byc.org.uk. 

 

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