Welcome to everybody, At the beginning, I would like to express my happiness to be here with you, and the talk about the youth is another reason to feel happy. I believe in the youth and their ability to work miracles. They are both wealth and revolution, as described by the Arab poet Michael Naima.

The youth have ever been present in the heart of major milestones. They are the driving force of revolutions, uprisings, and movements of change. They are a pillar of progress and development. Therefore, any nation that deals irresponsibly with its own youth and their issues loses so much. The youth are the real wealth that can be best invested in favour of countries and communities. Most initiatives designed to develop society and address harmful ideas and traditions come from the youth. Young people have enormous power to change and belong to the spirit of the times they live in.

 

Dear friends, 

When talking about peace and development, the youth must be positioned as peacemakers and guarantees for peace sustainability, as well as the ones who should reap and enjoy the benefits of peace. Real peace will not be achieved unless the youth are an essential part of it and the ultimate goal for which peace is made. Otherwise, there is a real prospect that peace will be undermined because keeping the youth, who are the most dynamic group and movement, on the sidelines will lead to dire consequences. 

As you know, a large part of the internal conflict is generally attributed to subnational factors and considerations, and has led to growing influence of warlords, groups and leaders that feed on the suffering of people. Those driven by war tendencies only master this ugly business that enables them to earn more profits, while societies, especially the youth, gain nothing but poverty, failure and deprivation.

It is in the interest of the youth armed with dream to confront this satanic ideology that fuels wars, and to fight corruption and adopt a national discourse that advocates for good governance and equal rights for all citizens, including the right to development.

The youth have the ability to fight the culture of conflict, war and internal strife, which leads only to hatred and social exclusion, and benefits nobody but warlords who accumulate money and expand influence. They are able to overcome this culture by adopting a national civic discourse that upholds the highest values of human rights within one united nation where rights, duties and opportunities are equal.

Thus, young people ought to be involved in effective programs and awareness campaigns so as not to engage in conflicts and internal fighting that have nothing to do with defending homelands. They should not be sacrificed just to increase assets and earnings of the merchants of war. They need to be safe from being turned into fuel for reckless adventures that do benefit neither them, country nor society. 

In all wars, the youth are almost the only ones who take the initiative and make sacrifices, and this seemingly tempts some elders to send them to dangerous places, while they keep themselves safe in places protected from any dangers, attempting to exploit the youth’s passion and enthusiasm to achieve goals that have nothing to do with noble values or national interest.

My message to the youth: be no more a tool of war! Have your own dreams and moral commitment to make peace, and move towards a healthy and conflict-free future! Be confident that you are able to achieve it! You have no choice but to make change which is absolutely in your interest; it is your era! 

You may say that generals and warlords have enough influence and power to practice repression and prevent every attempt to change, and so how could we stop them and seize the initiative and make history? I would say: You have many strength points, you have determination, tomorrow, future, vitality and ability to sacrifice and confront.

I would also tell you: power lies not only in arms, but also in science, determination, faith, belief in justice of cause, vitality, solidarity and tolerance.

Your voices are louder than the sounds of bullets and your bare hands are stronger than guns and bombs.

Your call for life is much stronger than their call for death and justifications of conflicts. You belong to the future while they belong to the past. You are moving towards in order to enjoy the brightness of the future, while they are moving backwards in order to burry themselves in the darkness of the past. It is the law of life. 

Yes, you have something stronger than anything, you have dreams, while they have only nightmares and fears; the fear that people may wake up and stop being mere victims and fuel of silly conflicts unrelated to national and human values and motives.

Nothing is more devastating than the fear of the future, suffered by those who still live in the past and seek to make it the present and future.

Seek to develop your potential, build capabilities, obtain communication skills and be armed with knowledge and with belief in working miracles. 

 

Dear youth, 

Nations become deprived of your creations when you disappear at all levels of leadership, when you are seen as immature people who are lacking in wisdom, experience and skill. This unfortunately happens in many parts of the world, and in all countries but in different proportions. In many places, leadership positions are assigned to the old people while doors are closed in the face of the youth under different pretexts and weak justifications.

You need to form your own political parties, have different means of pressure, set up NGOs, overrun the media platforms and be at everywhere, this is your era.

You are politicians and leaders, you are the ones who make policies, implement programs and plans, and lead countries and the world.

Women and the youth are marginalized worldwide, and are dealt with as tools and not as key partners in making plans and decisions.

These two categories (women and youth) belong to the spirit of the age - the time of globalization and the small village – and are able more than anyone else to provide a model of co-existence, participation and non-tyranny. Any policies to exclude or marginalize them should be rejected. It’s time to fix this exclusionary flawed equation, and you are able to fix it in favour of your nations, the world, and all of us.  

 

Dear friends, 

Colombia is one of the greatest inspirational experiences regarding peacemaking. I want you to pay tribute to this great country as it is making steady progress towards its sustainable peace after it was ensured that the state has the right to monopolize and use arms, the rebels have the right to effective political participation without resorting to violence or the use of force, and that the victims have the right to truth, justice, and reparation. 

Colombian peace deal has drawn widespread criticisms and concerns; some of these are true while the other are just exaggeration and unjustified fears. But we have to look to the future, and realize that a healthy and conflict-free future calls for some compromise, provided that nothing of the causes of the war is left unresolved.

The painful page of the war should be closed forever, the causes of the war must be addressed, the instruments of the war must be removed so that any concession for peace could be accepted. We must work for real and sustainable peace, and I see  that Colombia is moving in the right direction.