Global Young Greens (GYG) is an emerging global organisation supporting and consolidating the efforts of young people working towards

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...

ecological sustainability Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livin ...

grassroots democracy Grassroots democracy is a tendency towards designing political processes that shift as much decision-making authority as practical to the organization's lowest geographic or social level of organization. Grassroots organizations can have a var ...

and

peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

. GYG is a joint project of over 70 youth organisations and many hundreds of individuals, including the

Federation of Young European Greens The Federation of Young European Greens, often referred to as FYEG ( ), is an umbrella organisation that gathers young green movements and organisations across Europe with 40,000 members. FYEG's aim is to defend climate and social justice on the ...

, Asia Pacific Young Greens Network, Cooperation and Development Network Eastern Europe, Young Volunteers for the Environment and others. GYG is a non-profit organisation under

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

law.

History

The first informal meeting of young greens from around the world was held in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia prior to the 2001 Global Greens Conference,. Inspired by the Global Young Greens conference of 2001, in 2005 members of the

(FYEG), Campus Greens USA, and many young Green groups and individuals began discussing via email holding another conference. In 2006 two persons began working out of the FYEG office in Brussels. The official founding congress of Global Young Greens was held from January 16–20, 2007 in

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

, Kenya. It was attended by 156 people, with 133 voting participants, all under 35. Despite efforts of the organisers, the gender balance was still 2:1 male to female. The numbers were approximately as follows: Africa: 89 (50 Kenyans), Americas: 5, Asia/Pacific: 31, Europe: 26. Some of the countries that were represented included New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Canada, France, Spain, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Benin, Andorra, Czech Republic, Italy, Cyprus and Kenya. The congress saw agreement on an organisational structure, a list of principals and also elected an organising committee featuring 16 young people from 4 regions: Africa, Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe. Another informal, two-day GYG meeting was held in São Paulo, Brazil in April 2008, preceding the

Global Greens The Global Greens (GG) is an international network of political parties and movements which work to implement the Global Greens Charter. It consists of various national Green political parties, partner networks, and other organizations associate ...

Conference. Around 60 young greens participated. The Second Congress of the GYG was held August 8–13, 2010 in the German capital Berlin. Over 100 delegates from 48 nations participated in the Congress which lasted for 6 days and included dozens of workshops, several high-level panel debates as well as alternative approaches to exchanging ideas and learning from each other. In Berlin, the structures of the network were revised
Impressions
The third and fourth congresses took place alongside that of

, in

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 2 ...

and

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

respectively.

Principles

Membership is open to people 35 and under who identify as Green. Green principles are generally known as “the four principles”: * ecological sustainability * social justice * grassroots democracy * peace But this is merely the tip of the iceberg- for a full understanding of what it means to be Green, one and all should read the Global Greens Charter which is endorsed by GYG. Additionally, the Global Young Greens are striving for the following principles on all levels (local, national, regional, global): * Protection and restoration of the environment and respect towards animals * Sustainable, equitable and just development * Social Justice * Grassroots, participatory and global democracy, and in particular empowering young people to participate and build more democratic societies * Peaceful and non-military conflict resolution, arms control, disarmament * Gender justice, empowerment of women * Inter-generational justice, empowerment of youth and children * Freedom from discrimination on any grounds whatsoever, and equality for all * Empowerment of marginalised and disadvantaged people. * Just globalisation and fair trade * Personal freedom on the basis of universal human rights * The right of all people to self-determination particularly indigenous people.

Objectives

The objectives of GYG are to: * Empower young people within the framework of participatory democracy * Create a space for young people to be active without being dominated by older generations * Address inequalities between organizations and individuals * Forge strong links between sectors and organizations * Further the Green principles on planet Earth

Steering Committee (SC)

At the 2017 Congress in Liverpool, the Steering Committee was reduced in size to eight, with two representatives from each region. New Steering Committee members have been periodically elected since then. The current members of the Steering Committee are: * Fabiana Zanutti (Argentina) * Janmejai Tiwari (India) * Salome Gikonyo (Kenya) * Liliane Pollmann (Germany) * Ali Khademolhosseini (Germany) * Jung Lin (Taiwan) * Soulymane Ouedraogo (Burkina Faso) Members of the SC elected in Dakar were (until the congress in Liverpool): Alex Surace (Australia), Amy Tyler (Australia), Bart Dhondt (Belgium) Bernardo Estacio (

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

), Forget Chinomona (

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

), Jaime Andres Carrero Suarez (

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

), Julia Duppre (Brasil), Michaela Prassl (Austria), Nassima Guettal (

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

), Perlo Michel (

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 � ...

), Robyn Lewis (Australia), Rose Wachuka (Kenya), Sarah Benke (Germany), Tanya Gutmanis (Canada), Teo Abaishavili (

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

), Yangki Imade Suara (Indonesia), Previous members of the SC elected in Berlin (until the Congress in Dakar) were: Adam Sommerfeld (Canada), Alex Surace (Australia), Ann Bulimu (Kenya), Anna Kavalenka (Belarus), Clarence Chollet (Switzerland), Chung-Ming Wang (Taiwan), Jesùs López (Venezuela), Kalpana Ambepitiya (Sri Lanka), Kelvin Kaunda (Zambia), Lukas Beiglböck (Austria), Mareike Rehl (Germany), Masami Muramatsu (Japan), Roberta Morena Santos (Brazil), Roselin Monogla (Benin), Sandra Guzman (Mexico). Members of the first SC elected at the founding congress in Nairobi were: Douglas Arege (Kenya), Caroline Ayling (Australia), Andreas Birnstingl (Austria), Marie Madeline Boni (Benin), Raju Pandit Chhetri (Nepal), Eric Dombou (Cameroun), Murtaza Mir Ghulam (Pakistan), Andrea Horan (Canada), Ognyan Kovachev (Bulgaria), Rim Nour (Tunisia), Janna Schönfeld (Germany), Sarah Trichet Allaire (France), Elena Zakirova (Kirgisistan), Juan Manuel Zorraquín (Argentina).

References

External links