Walking the halls of the UN, I felt its power and its distance from the people it was built to serve | Satara Uthayakumaran

"In its 80th year, the UN headquarters in New York heard speeches that made headlines. One leader thundered threats of war. Another complained about an escalator. Meanwhile, outside the polished floors and gilded halls, children were starving in Palestine. Bombs fell. Borders closed. Budget cuts placed the very architecture of human rights under siege. This was meant to be a landmark gathering, a celebration of 80 years of multilateralism. Instead, it felt like a reckoning."

"Can the UN still serve the people it was built to protect, or has its promise begun to crack under the weight of politics? I am 22. I am not a politician. I am not a diplomat. I arrive without motorcade, without flags, without fanfare. But I carry something infinitely heavier: the voices of young people crying out for basic recognition the ones who should be standing in these chambers, yet perhaps never will."

"For the past year, I have travelled across this country, leading one of Australia's largest ever face-to-face youth consultations. From the Tiwi Islands to Tasmania, from city classrooms to remote detention centres, from town camps to refugee programs, I have listened to thousands of young people. And now I carry those voices with me into the heart of the UN, which is currently still in general assembly proceedings, negotiations and debates."

At the UN's 80th year, the general assembly featured dramatic speeches — threats of war and trivial complaints — while severe humanitarian crises persisted: children starving in Palestine, bombs falling, borders closing, and budget cuts undermining human rights architecture. The gathering intended to celebrate multilateralism instead felt like a reckoning over whether the UN can still protect vulnerable people amid political fractures. A 22-year-old non-politician attended without pomp, carrying the voices of young people. Over a year, travel across Australia's diverse regions gathered one of the largest face-to-face youth consultations, documenting poverty, terror, modern slavery, forced marriage, and systemic marginalization.

Read at www.theguardian.com