The World Youth Alliance successfully completed a three-day United Nations Leadership Training with 22 students from the Lebanese American University. The students from Lebanon participated in a seminar on the philosophy of human rights and other global issues, a UN model negotiation and a tour of United Nations Headquarters in New York.
The training focused on critical advocacy issues that are presently in discussion at the UN.
Anna Halpine, WYA founder, spoke about the foundation of human rights and the philosophy of human dignity underpinning the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Meghan Grizzle, WYA Research and Policy Specialist, gave an introduction to international law and how rights are created. Bernard Hamilton, Deputy Representative of the Permanent Mission of Malta to the United Nations, spoke about his on-the-ground experience at the UN, and Vincenzina Santoro, an international economist and former Vice President of JPMorgan, discussed population control problems in international policy. WYA President, Obadias Ndaba, discussed population and development from the perspective of the “developing world” and emphasized the critical role of fostering human creativity for development. WYA Director of Advocacy, Elyssa Koren, concluded the day with a talk on the role of WYA in the international arena.
The second day, Elyssa led participants in a UN simulated negotiation where participants representing different countries and country groups debated and ratified an outcome document, based on the actual events that transpired at the 2012 Commission on Population and Development. The third and last day participants visited the United Nations 
and had the chance to meet Ambassador Nawaf Salam, the Lebanese Ambassador to the United Nations, after the tour.
World Youth Alliance recently opened a new office in Middle East based in Beirut, Lebanon. WYA Middle East will be holding its first regional conference at the Lebanese American University in October. For more information contact Cedric Choukeir, WYA Director for Middle East, at cedric@wya.net
