CALD Youth Officials Attend IFLRY’s 41st GA

CALD Youth Chairman, Ivanpal Grewal and Secretary General, Joy Chen, attended the IFLRY’s 40th General Assembly and Seminar between 1st and 4th June 2017.

Over 4 days of intense discussion on issues affecting liberals and democrats around the world, the main focus was youth participation in politics and the need for greater economic freedom. There were representatives from Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and North America. While liberals and democrats are confronting similar challenges, Grewal took the opportunity during the CALD Youth Fringe Session, to share their specific concerns in Asia and CALD’s effort to tackle these challenges. Chen also presented a detailed report on the political situation in Taiwan and the strides made by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration under President Tsai Ing-wen.

In between the sessions, there was also the opportunity to network fellow regional organisations like the African Liberal Youth Network on how like-minded organisations can work closely together to confront the challenges we face and also further our work in our respective regions. In fact, Africans and Asian have a lot more in common than we realize, and this naturally presents many opportunities for collaboration.

The General Assembly also expressed its concern over the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Climate Change Agreement (COP21) and expressed its profound solidarity with the people of the United Kingdom over the attacks in London on 3rd June 2017.

Moving forward, IFLRY has also agreed to work with CALD Youth on training and communications especially by sharing their resources and capabilities.