“The THIMUN Youth Network is a Youth NGO that strives to put the talents of its members at the disposal of youth around the world. TYN aims to facilitate and encourage youth to become aware and active, and act as responsible stakeholders, and advance a spirit of collaboration, cooperation and participation among youth through our activities and network.”
Why TYN?
One thing that makes TYN rare is that while we promote youth activism, we also strive to be non-partisan.
This allows us to work with and promote the work of a variety of young people, often with very different political opinions, while recognising that no organisation can represent all of the world’s youth, which account for nearly half of the world’s population.
Many of our participants have a strong background in Model United Nations conferences, which has given them a thorough knowledge of UN structures, procedures and politics as well as skills in research, lobbying, public speaking and writing in formal, diplomatic language, which TYN particularly puts to use while promoting youth participation in our delegations to international conferences.
Our Summer Symposium aims to further develop these capabilities, giving participants a grounding in international NGO politics and the skills needed to operate in them.
Participants and especially coordinators of our Youth Assemblies gain experience in designing, managing and executing projects online, over different continents, and in discussions during our conferences in the Hague.
This knowledge is then in turn of great importance for our delegates to international conferences. We cannot represent the youth of the world. This is why we do not claim to lobby on the youth’s behalf.
Our activities centre rather on supporting youth caucuses – if existent – or other networks. We offer our expertise to these groups e.g. in diplomatically communicating or preparing documents.
The aim of every delegation is different and is the result of research as to how and what we can contribute the most. We are constantly in contact with other organizations to see where our expertise can be applied.
The THIMUN Youth Network provides an opportunity for youth between the ages of 16 and 25 inclusive to take responsibility for projects without ‘adult’ intervention, while also promoting youth-adult partnership in which the opinion and work of youth is taken just as seriously as that of adults.
TYN provides everyone the opportunity to work with diverse teams of people from around the world to learn how to make a real change.