TakingITGlobal

Introduction In this project, we united around a key idea from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty." Article 2, Universal Declaration of Human Rights A strong concern emerged that we live in the twenty first century, yet not everyone has access to the same basic rights. It is important for global citizens to ensure that everyone has this access. As long as substantial inequality persists, we cannot talk about progress in societies on a global level. During the project, we recognized inequality as being caused by already existing gaps between people and nations. As youth from different countries and contexts, we worry about how an imperial instinct plays into this. The interdependence of economic systems and pre-established hierarchies make it harder for global relations to be equitable because nations often enter into agreements based on self interest. We recognize that the different positions from which people enter into these conversations about major global issues make it difficult for some people to be heard and be part of the change. As youth, we are one of those groups who feel they do not have the opportunity to have our say. It's most likely that people who have more opportunity have the voice and end up speaking for everyone. Through our discussions, an important question kept coming up: is equality a goal that erases complexity? We wondered if focusing on equality can result in treating people the same instead of achieving fairness. Can this view of equality lead to simple ideas that don't really change or challenge inequalities? This question led us to begin to use the word equity as we recognized how we are each constructed by our histories and context. Equity is acknowledging different needs of people and communities in their contexts. Equity is about being in dialogue with all people and recognizing that many people are marginalised in a variety of ways. The concept of equity and discussions of justice and fairness have been central to all aspects of this project. We all have different backgrounds, religions, cultures, languages, genders, and races, and many experience marginalisation which impacts us in different ways and prevents us from having what we perceive as a good life. This means that we are working with a huge variety of people who don't always agree or relate to each other, which makes conversations complex. As we came together around the idea of global citizenship, we saw that it related to all of these issues. In this paper, we will use and understand the term global citizenship in a dynamic way. It can and must be questioned through different lenses. We need to be constantly examining who is and is not assumed to be a global citizen. In this project we recognize that having the space to consider and analyze global citizenship is itself a privilege many people don't have, and we want to always keep that in mind.

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