United Nations Youth Associations

United Nations Youth Associations (UNYAs) are youth-led NGOs entirely consisting of young volunteers

Aims

The aim of UNYAs is to raise support for the principles of the United Nations among their country’s populations in order to create a public opinion favourable of the United Nations’ aims thus influencing national politicians to work more towards strengthening the United Nations’ principles.

UNYAs also work to directly convince their countries’ leaders and future leaders to support United Nations’ principles. This is done by lobbying and educating the leaders and future leaders.

Activities

UNYAs work towards achieving their aim by carrying out different kind of projects:

*running information campaigns to inform the public about UN-related topics such as the Millennium Development Goals
*organizing speaker events on UN-related topics e.g. at schools and universities
*teaching about the UN’s work and the principles at high-schools
*carrying out Model United Nations conferences where students simulate negotiations of different UN bodies

Membership

There are UNYAs composed of high-schools students and others composed of university students. Sometimes high-school and university students work together.

UNYAs set different age limits for participation in their organization. Some UNYAs set it by 25, others by 30 years and others only require you to still be a (university) student.

The UNYA’s size varies from country to country. In some countries UNYAs have a large membership because they are the umbrella organizations of various national chapters with about 15 members each. In other countries, the UNYA is composed of only a small group of youths.

Different organizational forms for UNYAs

Young people doing UNYA work choose different organizational structures:

*Youths might set up an independent organization - a United Nations Youth Association - that works independently from their “mother organization”, their country’s United Nations Association (UNA). In these cases, the relationship between the UNYA and the UNA takes various forms ranging from the UNYA and the UNA being independent organizations that coordinate on an ad hoc basis to the UNYA having a seat in the UNA’s board.
*There are also United Nations Associations that do not have “Youth” in their title but that are almost entirely composed and governed by youth.
*Moreover, there are Youth Sections within the UNA acting as a youth organization within the adult organization.
*Last, there are UNA Youth Programmes taking various forms.

WFUNA-Youth - The international umbrella organisations of all United Nations Youth Associations

The World Federation of United Nations Associations - Youth (WFUNA-Youth)] is the youth section of the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) and thus the global umbrella organization for all United Nations Youth Associations and UNA Youth Sections/Programmes around the world.

It is a youth-led NGO entirely consisting of young volunteers.

WFUNA-Youth aims to gain more support for the United Nations’ principles among populations and especially young people by strengthening the activities of United Nations Youth Associations (UNYAs) and UNA Youth Sections/Programmes worldwide. It seeks to promote the establishment of UNYAs or Youth Sections/Programmes where they do not exist.

External links

* [http://www.wfuna-youth.org/ World Federation of United Nations Associations - Youth (WFUNA-Youth)]