COPENHAGEN, 5 April 2023 – The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly hosted today a webinar on “Dialogue on Future Generations” focused on safeguarding the interests of generations that are yet to be born and exchange of best practices in promotion of their rights within the parliamentary dimension. The online event was jointly organized by Special Representative on Youth Engagement and Vice-Chair of the Third General Committee Farah Karimi (The Netherlands) and Vice-President and Special Representative on Sustainable Development Goals Askar Shakirov (Kazakhstan).
Participants reiterated the urgent need to develop long-term policies and solutions to current emerging crises aimed at ensuring safety and welfare of future generations and to deliver more for young people to be better prepared for the challenges ahead.
“Young people can play an important role in the transformation of our institutions for the development of multilateral solutions for a better tomorrow. They will inherit the world we are building today and will pass it to the generations to come,” Karimi said. “It is crucial to invest on mechanisms of inclusion of young people in decision-making to create a social cohesion for a longer term.”
OSCE PA Vice-President Shakirov pointed out the important linkages between the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and creating a safer and better planet for future generations. “To build more sustainable societies, we need to integrate socio-economic, environmental and new technology governance in a longer-term perspective. We must not only think beyond the 2030 agenda, but we must also implement guiding pillars that will ensure forward-looking visions on how we choose to live and interact with the world around us,” he said.
In her welcoming remarks, President Margareta Cederfelt (Sweden) commended the increased international attention in recognition of the rights of future generations and expressed hope that these efforts can generate sufficient political will to agree on a UN Declaration on Future Generations. “Such a political document would be instrumental in committing our international community to reform and modernize institutions to protect future generations,” Cederfelt said.
OSCE PA members also had a chance to hear and exchange views with a panel of guest speakers that included Ambassador Yoka Brandt, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations; Thomas Hale, Professor of Global Public Policy in the University of Oxford; Cat Zuzarte Tully, Director of the School of International Futures; and Jacob Ellis, Lead Change Maker in the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales.
Together with the experts, participants discussed the prospects for adoption of a Declaration on Future Generations and its preparation process, exchanged views on possible transformation of legal institutions and decision-making mechanisms with a long-term vision, deliberated about the role of young people in shaping future policies and showcased best practices in parliamentary modernization.
In the end, participants agreed to continue and intensify the work of the Assembly in the domain of future generations, in particular promoting their interests and rights through the Assembly’s political debates, and talked about the possibility of proposing a Supplementary Item to the OSCE PA’s Vancouver Declaration that would explicitly focus on the issues of future generations.
