Delhi student Swati Chawla will meet President of Cyprus Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat as part of a youth peace-building programme taking place in Nicosia next week.
Chawla, 25, was selected from hundreds of young people around the world to take part in a weeklong programme of activities relating to the theme “Conflict and Beyond” as part of the Commonwealth Youth Leadership Programme. The event comes just a week after long-awaited reunification talks between the Cypriot President and Turkish Cypriot leader are due to commence.
As well as discussing conflict resolution with the respective leaders, Chawla, along with 28 other gifted youth delegates from 21 Commonwealth countries, will take a rare tour inside the Green Line with UN Peacekeepers and participate in workshops with the UNDP and British Council.
Swati has just completed a Masters in Literature from the University of Delhi and works for the Centre for Civil Society think tank. She has acted as Asian regional coordinator for a global Youth Parliament, worked with students in a Tibetan nunnery and is a keen writer currently working on her first novel.
Amarasingham will bring valuable knowledge and experience to the programme which aims to inspire leaders of tomorrow. She says “As students, writers, voters, citizen journalists and future bureaucrats, businessmen and political leaders; young people have it in them to bring about changes in the policies that can lead to conflict.”
The Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) is an international Non-Governmental Organisation working to promote an understanding of the nature and working of the Commonwealth, and of the factors which shape the lives of its peoples and the policies of its governments. The RCS is supported by a worldwide membership of over 10,000, with self-governing branches, honorary representatives and affiliated organisations in 39 countries and territories. The international headquarters are in London.
The Commonwealth Youth Leadership Programme (CYLP) is also known as “Nkabom”, meaning ‘coming together’ in the Ghanaian language of Twi. It is a biennial project organized by the RCS running from 14-21 September. It directly precedes the RCS International Meeting, running in Cyprus from 22-27 September, which brings together RCS branches and membership from across the world.
The CYLP encourages the cross-cultural exchange of ideas and aims to inspire a new generation of proactive peace builders and Commonwealth leaders. The theme and location of the event reflects the fact that Cyprus may now be emerging from a long history of conflict and division to a time of real prospects for peace and reunification.
Whilst in Cyprus CYLP delegates will participate in a packed programme of events that will also include a visit to the Ledra Observatory, participation in the UNESCO youth dialogue project, a tour of the House of Representatives and workshops with the Commonwealth Secretariat. They will be meeting the Cypriot President Demetris Christofias on Monday 15 September and the Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat on Wednesday 17 September to discuss prospects for peace on the island.
Demetris Christofias was elected to the presidency of Cyprus in February 2008. Mehmet Ali Talat has been the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community since 2005. The leaders announced on 25 July that formal reunification talks would commence on September 3.
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