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Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates how individuals from marginalized populations, particularly youth (ages 18-24) and indigenous groups, democratically engage in international negotiations and decision-making processes on sustainable development. Case study used: Creating the Sustainable Development Goals.

Paper long abstract:

This paper investigates how individuals from marginalized populations, particularly youth (ages 18-24) and indigenous groups, democratically engage in international negotiations and decision-making processes on sustainable development. Using the creation and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a case study, the research assesses successes and roadblocks that such individuals experience as they negotiate with delegates or UN staff. One of the main elements of the paper is to investigate how technology either helps or hinders marginalized individual’s or group’s access to and engagement in UN negotiations, with a specific focus on recent communication technologies of online meeting platforms (e.g., Zoom), phone and computer applications that advance communication (What’s App), and the use or impacts of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on such interactions. The paper argues that the future of international negotiation and diplomacy requires a concerted effort to engage across political and social boundaries with many different entities beyond nation-states (from individuals to non-profit organizations to corporations). The paper relies on in-depth qualitative interviews of youths and indigenous peoples who have been active in engaging with the United Nations (UN) on sustainable development activities through the Major Groups and Other Stakeholders mechanisms (MGos). There are already some clear trends coming out of the interviews thus far conducted, namely, that there are structural roadblocks to youth and indigenous engagement with UN negotiations at conferences and in committees that include 1) lack of funding and resources for youth and young people to engage both in-person or remotely, 2) lack of delegate commitment to include marginalized voices, 3) donor interests swaying the conversation (and influencing marginalized groups to follow one path even when they are included), 4) the challenges of technology which does not only mean technology access, but the negative impacts of technology on inclusion, 5) language barriers (while the UN has six official languages, it is still very difficult and expensive to work in or translate into other languages, even within those six, and thus the default language is English), and finally, 6) lack of respect and a tendency toward tokenism for youth and indigenous peoples. Closer examination and implementation of the ways in which the UN is currently working with young people and indigenous populations can more accurately represent marginalized voices and ensure support in implementing sustainable development policies.