By Mary Poni
South Sudanese youth have called on their government, UN agencies and the diplomatic community to honour their commitment to resolutions 2250.
The Youth peace and security agenda to accelerate the implementation of resolutions 2250 urges the government to form the Youth Peace and Security Commission.
Young people in South Sudan remain at the centre of the efforts to build peace and must be fully supported if sustainable peace is to be achieved.
This concern was raised yesterday in a press statement made by a group of youth coalition and presented by the Executive Director for Africa Democracy and Resilience Network, Wani Stephen Elias during the 7th Anniversary of UNSCR 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security Agenda under the theme, “Accelerate National Implementation of Youth, Peace and Security Agenda in South Sudan”
“The Youth peace and security coalition in the country wishes to make it categorically clear that youth are central to the nexus of peace and security, development and human rights and its participation is critical for the achievement of the sustainable development goals” he noted
Wani Stephen said that the youth commission is also vital for the promotion of human rights and wider peace and security agendas such as those on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and children and armed conflict.
Meanwhile, the undersecretary, of the national ministry of peace-building Mr. Pia Phillip, said that as the country celebrates the 7th anniversary of the United Nation resolution 2250 on youth peace and security in the country, the resolution was raised to the world by United Nations given the names that it bears in every country in the world.
He said the role of youth in peacebuilding is very critical that they should be engaged to be given the platform they require to take charge and to be able to participate in building sustainable peace across the world.
Pia stated that in South Sudan, the resolution is very important as it gives an opportunity for the youth together with the partners to have something positive to report to the world about.
“We need to come up with the national action plan and we need to have a collective strategy on how our voices and our activities can reach the UNSC and the resolution is been implemented,” he said.
Pia underlined that the UNSCR 2250 on youth, peace and security is a cross-cutting thing as the issues of youth are concerned, saying the ministry of peacebuilding is part of it because of the peace aspect and the ministry of youth is also critical on the youth aspect.
He called for collective work since there is a vice president who is in charge of the youth and gender clusters.
“I think the celebration is giving us the opportunity to think and see how we can expand the creation of this governance structure that will guard the operationalization of this resolution” he noted.
“We commit to working with you to make sure that the next anniversary we would have the structures in place including the activities” he continued
Undersecretary said People should be thinking about how to come up with a national action plan that will enable the country to collectively have efforts to be able to respond to the world in matters related to the particular resolution.
“I promise to stand and to work with you together” he assured.
“One thing that people should always remember is that, if we are looking for youthful people to build a sustainable national economy, they should be provided with the capacity to contribute to the economic development,” said the UNFPA Country Representative Dr. Ademola Olajide.