3 March: UNICEF launched a registration procedure for teams of young people to participate in the J8 SummitOn March 3, 2009, UNICEF launched a registration procedure for teams of young people between the ages of 14 and 17 to participate in the Junior 8 Youth Forum scheduled to be held on July 8-10, 2009 in Italy within the summit of the G8 leaders. The leaders of the “Group of Eight” countries – UK, Germany, Italy, Canada, RF, France and USA – are traditionally invited to attend the G8 summit. However, in addition to young representatives from the G8 countries, young people from other countries that are not G8 members, including Brazil, India, China and South Africa, will take part in the forthcoming Junior 8 Youth Forum, which is organized with UNICEF’s assistance. In such a way, the youth summit participants will demonstrate that decisions made by G8 leaders affect all the children worldwide regardless of the country where they live. Within the “Junior 8” meeting, young representatives will discuss the same issues that are on the agenda of the G8 summit and present their views at a face-to-face meeting with some of the most influential world leaders. Though the selection process of youth summit participants and its criteria are different in different countries, all the participating countries have one common goal. Each of them is to form a group of young representatives who are capable of both representing their home country in the best possible way and, which is even more important, reaching an effective agreement with their peers. Such an international team is indeed in a position to offer the G8 leaders well-thought out solutions to the global problems under consideration. In Russia, young “diplomats” are carefully selected through a very thorough procedure in the form of a national contest that consists of three qualifying rounds. Each year, when Russia is not hosting the high-level gathering of world leaders, school students from only one of the Russian Federal Districts participate in the national contest. This year, school students from the Southern Federal District will be traveling to Italy to join the Junior 8 Youth Forum. During the first round, regional contest committees are to select authors of the five best essays on top priority socio-political topics. The second round includes group discussions, simulation exercises, presentations, interviews, English language tests, meetings with the authorities, diplomats and scholars. Based on the results of the first two rounds, the Expert Commission of the RF Ministry of Education and Science is to make a final decision on the composition of the Russian national youth team during the third round. The names of the selected young delegates will be announced on March 14, 2009. On Junior 8 Summit Junior 8 Summit is a get-together of young representatives that runs parallel to the G8 Summit of world leaders. It is sponsored and spearheaded by UNICEF jointly with the authorities of the country hosting the G8 Summit. The first Junior 8 meeting as an official event within the G8 summit was held in 2006, when the G8 leaders got together in St.Petersburg. The goal of this event is to promote understanding of contemporary global problems among young people. At the J8 Summit, young people will have an opportunity to discuss pressing world issues and meet face-to-face with G8 leaders to discuss their proposals.
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