World Youth Alliance
The World Youth Alliance (WYA) is an international, non-governmental, non-profit youth organization which works to promote the dignity of the person at the international and grassroots level. World Youth Alliance works to build solidarity between developed and developing nations. In 1999, the World Youth Alliance was founded in New York City at the United Nations.
World Youth Alliance recognizes that the intrinsic dignity of the person is the foundation of every human right and that dignity is independent of any individual condition and therefore no human community can grant or rescind dignity. The charter of WYA states that authentic development of society can occur "only in a culture that fosters integral human development - characterized by physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional growth, in a climate of respect for the human person and the family."
History
The World Youth Alliance was founded in 1999 as a reaction of conscience at the United Nations Conference on Population and Development (ICPD+5) by Anna Halpine, who was the WYA president until 2007. At a conference convened to discuss the needs of the world’s people, basic needs including access to clean water, sanitation, education, nutrition, health care, and employment were not addressed. Halpine and others went back into the assembly the next morning and distributed flyers which stated that these young people did not represent all the youth of the world. She called for a discussion on topics addressing basic human rights and necessities.
Programs
The World Youth Alliance pursues its mission through three core program areas:
Advocacy
WYA promotes the dignity of the human person at international institutions - including the United Nations, the European Union, and the Organization of American States. The goal of WYA’s work with these organizations is to advocate for human dignity and ensure that discussions and outcome documents affirm the tremendous value of human life.
Aside from this, WYA also issues declarations, statements and white papers that outline its position and analyses on issues of global concern. To date, WYA has released white papers on Family Planning, HIV/AIDS, Maternal Health, Reproductive Health and Sustainable Development.
Education
The World Youth Alliance’s educational programs are designed to equip students, of any age, to promote and defend the dignity of the human person through advocacy and culture either directly, as active members, or wherever they find themselves in the course of a lifetime. A variety of formal and informal educational programs provide opportunities to develop a deeper understanding of the meaning of human dignity as well as a greater commitment to defending and promoting this essential truth about the human person. Ultimately, the desired educational outcome is the formation of individuals who embrace a worldview that situates the dignity and worth of every human person at the center and whose lives reflect this understanding and commitment.
WYA Track A Training is the core material for training in the principles that inform the mission of the World Youth Alliance. It is a collection of texts with corresponding questions that together examines the philosophical and cultural idea of the dignity of the person, and enables our members to articulate this idea.
Other WYA educational programs include internships and summer camps to help young people meet new friends and ground themselves in WYA’s mission.
The International Solidarity Forum (ISF) is an annual week-long training event for WYA’s most committed and involved members. They participate in discussions, workshops and cultural activities focused on an issue of global importance. Every ISF produces a Declaration related to the theme.
Culture
WYA’s cultural programs provide young people with the opportunity for a lived experience of the dignity of the human person. WYA believes that the arts provide an avenue to experience transcendent beauty, an objective good that draws individuals into deeper contemplation of their human condition and the nature of the world.
Each year WYA hosts the Manhattan International Film Festival and the International Arts Forum gathering the work of many young people in their portrayal of the human experience and helping them engage in dialogue on the relationship between art and the human person.
The WYA Chamber Orchestra provides an opportunity for young musicians to explore their responsibility as musicians in today’s world.
WYA at the United Nations
WYA is an accredited ECOSOC Civil Society Network NGO. WYA can thus access UN grounds, attend meetings, and speak as a civil society representative. WYA participates in the UN’s 3 major commissions: Commission on Social Development, Commission on the Status of Women, and Commission on Population and Development.