Participants at the Youth Perspectives Conference at the Institute's Villa Barton.

Geneva International Model United Nations (GIMUN), a partner organisation of the Institute, has just wrapped up the third edition of its Youth Perspectives Conference, which took place from 29 November to 2 December at the Villa Barton. The Institute regularly hosts GIMUN events and many of its students participate in GIMUN activities. This edition of Youth Perspectives was dedicated to “The Role of Youth in the Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals”. The conference gathered 49 young adults from 28 countries in four different committees, which were: “Migration and Poverty Reduction”, “Economic Crisis and Unemployment”, “Social Media in Development”, and “Volunteering to Achieve”.

“The aim of this project is to give youth the opportunity to debate, negotiate and express their views on different contemporary issues in the international arena. Participants were very inventive and motivated, and the debates were rich. Furthermore, several experts were invited to express their vision on the topic”, said Yusra Suedi, President of GIMUN.

The committees gave a presentation of their discussions to the Youth Perspectives General Assembly, which voted on Sunday on the outcome documents of each committee. After each day of intense debates, participants and staff were invited to several social events such as a group dinner and a bar-night to allow participants to get to know each other and to continue negotiating in a relaxed atmosphere.

The Geneva International Model United Nations (GIMUN) is run entirely by students with the aim of promoting the ideals and principles of the United Nations.

GIMUN will collaborate in the next edition of the Institute's Winter Programme on the United Nations in January.

Apply for the available positions for the 2013 GIMUN Annual Conference through the GIMUN website.

See French-language media coverage of the Youth Perspectives event at the Institute (Leman Bleu).