Participation of youth in decision-making process must be ensured to establish Peaceful Bangladesh: Right to Peace

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Update Time : Monday, September 20, 2021
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The youth, as the future of the country, are facing many challenges. With the Pandemic situation in the context, failure to address these challenges properly is also hampering the path to build a peaceful country. To further explore these challenges and hopes, on the occasion of the upcoming International Day of Peace 2021, Right to Peace organised a Webinar titled Youths for Peaceful Bangladesh: Challenges and Prospects” on September 17, 2021.

Honorary Chief Patron of ‘Right to Peace’ Dr. Saber Ahmed Chowdhury, Associate Professor, Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Dhaka and Honorary Patron Mohammad Main Uddin, Assistant Professor, Department of International Relations, Bangladesh University of Professionals were present at the webinar. Manik Mahmud, Head of Social Innovation & Operation Cluster, a2i; Nazmul Ahsan, Manager, Young People, ActionAid Bangladesh and Mithun Das Kabbo founder of Alokito Shishu and Volunteer Opportunities were present as the panel speakers in this webinar.

In his opening Sstatement, Dr Saber Ahmed Chowdhury welcomed the respective guest speakers from different organizations and talked about the necessities, opportunities, and possibilities of youth development. He pointed out, “Young people need a platform where they can express their thoughts and come up with new ideas through discussion. Right to Peace is working for creating that kind of platform” He also highlighted the need to enhance the skills of the youth in ensuring peace and security and to involve the youth in research work as well as fieldwork. On the other hand, in his valuable speech, Manik Mahmud, Head of Social Innovation & Operation Cluster, a2i, who has been working for a long time on innovation, digitalization, skills development of young people and increasing their participation in policymaking, spoke about the need to increase the skills of young people in our society. He mentioned the immense potential of young society, the need for their participation in state policy-making, and the enhancement of their skills. Mr. Nazmul Ahsan, Manager and Representative of ActionAid Bangladesh, a long-time organization working on human rights and youth, spoke about the overall development of the youth, ensuring their performance and their activities in establishing peace and security. He spoke about the activities of ActionAid in bringing the youth into the mainstream and emphasized ensuring their active participation in the policy-making process of the state by increasing the leadership of the youth in peacebuilding. Adding to the valuable points the previous panelists made, Mithun Das Kabbo, founder of Alokito Shishu & Volunteer Opportunities, mentioned the role of young society during this corona period and their importance in tackling the next corona challenge. He pointed out the obstacles that are disturbing the peace in the society and talked about the role of the youth in this.

In the concluding part, Mohammad Main Uddin, Honorary Patron of “Right to Peace”, sheds light on the overall discussion and gives directions on how to implement the important issues found in the discussion.

The webinar was held from 8 pm to 9.30 pm. Volunteers of R2P and members from other organizations and people from different parts of the country joined the webinar session. The Head of Research and Publication, Right to Peace, Mahabuba Islam Meem, moderated the webinar.