Youth Parliament to debate ‘self-determination’ in first sitting

A date has been set for the 23-member Virgin Islands Youth Parliament to host its first-ever sitting.

The young parliamentarians will convene for their first sitting on March 11.

A media release from the House of Assembly said Premier of the Youth Parliament, Kevin Fahie is expected to move a motion to open up a debate on the topic, “Should the Virgin Islands move to self-determination?

”According to the Secretariat of the Youth Parliament, Dr Arliene Penn, the youth parliamentarians have been doing extensive research on the subject at hand.

She said they have been meeting several days per week to prepare their contributions for the debate.

As the Secretariat, our responsibility is to create learning opportunities for the young people to gather primary and secondary data from different stakeholders, including scholars and local, regional and international institutions,” Dr Penn explained.

“We exposed them to different strategies for amalgamating and interpreting the data collected, whether it is quantitative or qualitative,” the Secretariat said.

“Additionally, we have been working with them to ensure that there is a clear understanding of the differences that exist between parliamentary and school debates,” she added.

She continued: “Our responsibility is not to tell the youth what to think about or how to think. Instead, we have encouraged all of them to allow the research — data collected — to guide and shape how they draw their conclusions and frame their respective contributions to ensure independent thinking through the lens of the youth.”

The subject matter of self-determination has been a hot-button topic in the territory over the years and has been at the forefront of discussions in recent months and weeks. Premier Andrew Fahie has stood among the sitting elected representatives leading that narrative.