Opening the Commonwealth Heads of the Government Meet (CHOGM) at the capital of Uganda on Friday, the Queen stressed the need to fully tap the energy and potential of the youth.

“Young people can and should play a part in the many global challenges that cannot be resolved by older generations alone, whether in the Commonwealth as a whole or in each of its member countries,” she said.
The heads of the 51 of the 53 Commonwealth Nations are either attending or being represented at the CHOGM 2007. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is attending the summit.

Among the absentees is Pakistan, which decided not to attend the meet much before the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group suspended it late at night on Thursday.

The youth, accounting for almost half of the total two billion population of Commonwealth, have been on the focus for the CHOGM 2007, which is based on the theme, ‘Transforming the Societies for Economic, Political and Human Development’.

The outgoing Secretary General of the Commonwealth Don McKinnon earlier called for young people to be “continuously” involved in areas such as “health, education, business, the environment and politics”.

He was addressing the Commonwealth Youth Forum that preceded the CHOGM. “Every government decision and activity can and should have a youth dimension, a youth policy, and a youth budget,” he said.