At the UN, young people push to make sure the generational shift is faster — and more substantial

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — They were sharing the world stage to discuss a plan to give young people more input in decisions that shape lives. And 26-year-old Daphne Frias, talking to the head of the United Nations, had thoughts.

“Truly, it’s time for the people who do so much of the talking to do less of the talking," the disability and climate activist told Secretary-General António Guterres. “And to have the voices of my generation ... lead."

Their exchange this month, at a leadup event to the U.N. General Assembly's meeting of nations' leaders, was a measure of diplomacy's generation gap.

A big young cohort is coming of age in a troubled world, and it's coming with ideas about inclusion, participation and authority. Those ideas are nudging the hierarchical, bureaucratic ways of an international order set up when their grandparents were kids or not even born.

“My generation messed up when it comes to the world today," the 75-year-old U.N. chief told Frias and an audience of activists and others in the vast, coolly elegant assembly hall.

The world needs a new generation that understands “we are living to disaster" and can turn it around, Guterres said, adding emphatically: “We cannot do that if your generation is not part of the decision-making process that is still controlled by my generation that messed up."

But how to make that change in a global system and governments largely run by older people, and a United Nations that has tried to engage the young but still has some procedures, protocol — and even architecture — reflecting what was “modern” more than seven decades ago? Does the U.N. matter, anyway, to a social-network-native generation with its own means of connecting and organizing across borders, and with a sense of urgency that chafes at the pace of intergovernmental accords?

Marinel Sumook Ubaldo, a 27-year-old Filipina climate activist, has been involved in U.N. conferences and believes the world body can be a valuable platform for advocacy. But so can grassroots organizing and building public pressure outside big organizations, Ubaldo says.

“If the U.N. can shift from symbolic inclusion to truly empowering youth with decision-making authority and accountability mechanisms, I would say it would remain relevant,” she said. “But if not, young people will continue to forge new paths.”

Over 1.9 billion people — nearly a quarter of the world population — are between ages 10 and 24. But young people are sparse in the corridors of power. Under 3% of members of national legislatures are under 30, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a global group of such bodies.

Of course, today's young activists aren't the first to worry about the world they're inheriting, to yearn to be heard or to feel they can't wait patiently for the creaky wheels of change to turn.

But this generation has been steeped in a particular brew of risks and crises: post-9/11 wars and security culture, a financial meltdown, a pandemic, billions of people living in conflict zones, a planet that's warming at the fastest rate ever measured. And, with the rise of social media, the generation's ideas about solutions to such challenges move around faster than ever before.

As Frias puts it, “we don’t have time for dues to be paid" to try to influence things.

“We constantly get told that we are inspirational, that we’re doing a great job, that we are the future,” Frias, an American-born daughter of Dominican immigrants, said in an interview. “But inspiration doesn’t change the world. Action does."

Over the years, the U.N. has made various overtures to young people. An assistant secretary-general for youth affairs, Dr. Felipe Paullier, was tapped last year. There had previously been a lower-level youth envoy.

A roster of youth delegates, advisory groups and more have taken part in U.N. activities over the decades. Some have attracted considerable attention, including speeches by Afghan girls' education advocate and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, climate activist Greta Thunberg and K-pop stars BTS.

A 2018 initiative called “Youth 2030” is meant to make young people “full-fledged partners” in the U.N.’s work. A recent update said progress has been “steady but slower than desired.”

Now comes the “ Pact for the Future,” a wide-ranging document approved Sunday at a summit that kicked off this year’s big General Assembly gathering. The pact includes pledges to spend more on youth services, to create jobs and to promote “meaningful youth participation" in national policymaking and U.N. processes.

That might sound bland to the casual observer. But through a U.N. lens, devoting a chapter to youth and future generations in a laboriously negotiated global blueprint — and getting 193 nations to sign off — elevates and enshrines youths as a priority.

“Ten or 15 years ago, you know, young people were just seen as beneficiaries of policies,” Paullier, 33, said in an interview. “There are many things changing that are showing institutions, decision-makers, are saying, 'OK, we need to engage with them as partners.'"

There's still far to go, he notes.

Nudhara Yusuf, who co-chaired a civil society conference that helped prepare for the recent summit, says the U.N. has made "a real turn" toward engaging young people. Now it's a question of making promises of “meaningful” participation ... meaningful.

“How do you go beyond just putting someone on a panel? How do you ensure that they’re part of the dialogue offstage, as well?” asks Yusuf, 25. Born in Britain and raised in India, she's a researcher at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington.

Young activists also may lack the resources to move in international circles when it entails far-flung travel. While many have started organizations and done fundraising, some say it's hard getting past a “youth organization” rubric to tap bigger pools of grants, despite working on broader issues.

Amani Joel Mafigi, who co-founded an entrepreneurship organization in Uganda, thinks the U.N. should establish a youth empowerment fund to back climate, social justice and innovation initiatives. The 27-year-old offered that suggestion to the secretary-general at the same event with Frias.

In an interview, Mafigi added that he'd want young “changemakers” to be central to structuring such a fund and steering its work.

“I have seen how much young people with little resources can do and can achieve within a minimum period of time, with less bureaucratic processes," said Mafigi, who fled Congo as a refugee in 2008.

Guterres told him, Frias and others in the assembly hall that the U.N. aims to add more young staffers and to give youths a voice “when things are being decided, not when things have been decided.”

“But, I mean, let’s be clear: Power is never given. Power is taken,” Guterres said. “So I encourage young people not to be afraid to fight for their rights.”

See more of AP’s coverage of the U.N. General Assembly at https://apnews.com/hub/united-nations

Daphne Frias speaks during an event at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Daphne Frias speaks during an event at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Daphne Frias speaks during an event at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Daphne Frias speaks during an event at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

In this photo taken from video, Daphne Frias, right, engages with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024 during a panel discussion at UN headquarters. (UNTV via AP)

DOUGLAS, Ariz. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris walked a scrubby stretch of fence line along Arizona’s border with Mexico on Friday, seeking to project an image of strength against illegal migration as she confronts one of her biggest vulnerabilities in the November election.

In her first trip to the international boundary since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, Harris chatted with local Border Patrol leaders as they strode along a rust-colored stretch of wall built during Barack Obama's presidency. Temperatures in Douglas, Arizona, neared 100 degrees during a conversation that lasted about half an hour.

“They’ve got a tough job, and they need, rightly, support to do their job,” Harris said of the Border Patrol as she entered the Douglas port of entry for a briefing on efforts to block the flow of fentanyl across the border. “They are very dedicated. And so I’m here to talk with them about what we can continue to do to support them. And also thank them for the hard work they do.”

Later, she was expected to call for further tightening asylum restrictions, moving beyond President Joe Biden’s policy on an issue where her rival, former President Donald Trump, has an edge with voters. Hundreds of people packed into a gymnasium to hear her speak.

Trump and his fellow Republicans have pounded Harris relentlessly over the Biden administration’s record on migration and fault the vice president for spending little time visiting the border during her time in the White House.

Harris will outline her plan to crack down further on asylum claims and keep the restrictions in place longer compared to the executive order that Biden signed this summer, according to a campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity because Harris had not yet made the announcement. The official briefed reporters aboard Air Force 2 en route to Arizona.

Harris arrived by helicopter in Douglas, where she met with Mayor Donald Huish, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels and County Supervisor Ann English, along with Sen. Mark Kelly and Attorney General Kris Mayes.

Immigration and border security are top issues in Arizona, the only battleground state that borders Mexico and one that contended with a record influx of asylum seekers last year. Voters favor Trump on migration, and Harris has gone on offense to improve her standing on the issue and defuse a key line of political attack for Trump.

In nearly every campaign speech she gives, Harris recounts how a sweeping bipartisan package aiming to overhaul the federal immigration system collapsed in Congress earlier this year after Trump urged top Republicans to oppose it.

"The American people deserve a president who cares more about border security than playing political games,” Harris plans to say, according to an excerpt of her remarks previewed by her campaign.

After the immigration legislation stalled, the Biden administration announced rules that bar migrants from being granted asylum when U.S. officials deem that the southern border is overwhelmed. Since then, arrests for illegal border crossings have fallen.

Harris will also use her trip to remind voters about her work as attorney general of California in confronting crime along the border. During an August rally in Glendale, outside Phoenix, she talked about helping to prosecute drug- and people-smuggling gangs that operated transnationally and at the border.

“I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won,” Harris said then.

The vice president’s trip to Douglas thrusts the issue of immigration into the brightest spotlight yet less than six weeks before Election Day.

Trump didn’t wait for her to arrive there before pushing back. He pointed Friday to purported data about criminals entering the U.S. illegally in a bid to link Harris to violent crimes committed by migrants. In a scathing diatribe, he said “blood is on her hands.”

“These are hard, tough, vicious criminals that are free to roam in our country,” Trump said at a manufacturing plant in Michigan.

Earlier in the week, he told voters that “when Kamala speaks about the border, her credibility is less than zero."

The Trump campaign has also countered with its own TV ads deriding the vice president as a failed “border czar.”

“Under Harris, over 10 million illegally here,” said one spot. However, estimates on how many people have entered the country illegally since the start of the Biden administration in 2021 vary widely.

Harris also never held the position of border czar. Instead, her assignment was to tackle the “root causes” of migration from three Central American nations — El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — that were responsible for a significant share of border crossers.

The vice president took a long-term approach to an immediate problem, helping persuade multinational corporations and Latin American businesses to invest in the region. That, she argued, would create jobs and give locals more reasons to stay home rather than take the arduous trek north.

Still, Trump has continued to decry an “invasion” of border crossers.

Douglas, where Harris appeared, is an overwhelmingly Democratic border town in GOP-dominated Cochise County, where the Republicans on the board of supervisors are facing criminal charges for refusing to certify the 2022 election results. Trump was in the area last month, using a remote stretch of border wall and a pile of steel beams to draw a contrast between himself and Harris on border security.

The town of 16,000 people has strong ties to its much larger neighbor, Agua Prieta, Mexico, and a busy port of entry that’s slated for a long-sought upgrade. Many locals are as concerned with making legal border crossings more efficient as they are with combatting illegal ones.

Cooper reported from Phoenix.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris greets members of the U.S. Border Patrol as she visits the U.S. border with Mexico in Douglas, Ariz., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris talks with John Modlin, the chief patrol agent for the Tucson Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol, right, and Blaine Bennett, the U.S. Border Patrol Douglas Station border patrol agent in charge, as she visits the U.S. border with Mexico in Douglas, Ariz., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The motorcade with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris drives toward the U.S. border with Mexico near Douglas, Ariz., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign event, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 in Walker, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris smiles next to Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., as she departs for the U.S.-Mexico border from Joint Base Andrews, Md., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool via AP)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris followed by Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., walks after arriving in Douglas, Ariz., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump Tower in New York, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (Seth Wenig)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris departs from Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, enroute to New York. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris addresses the Economic Club of Pittsburgh on the Carnegie Mellon University campus in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump Tower in New York, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (Seth Wenig)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks as she meets with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, at the Vice President's ceremonial office inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)