Agenda

Dr. Felipe Paullier of Uruguay assumed his mandate as the first-ever Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs in December 2023 at the age of 32. He is the youngest senior appointment in the history of the United Nations, and the youngest serving member of the Secretary-General’s senior management group.

As head of the United Nations Youth Office, Mr. Paullier leads systemwide collaboration, coordination and accountability on youth affairs, overseeing the UN’s efforts to strengthen meaningful youth engagement in the areas of sustainable development, human rights, and peace and security.

Prior to taking up his post, Mr. Paullier was the Director General of the National Youth Institute of Uruguay beginning in 2020, where he led efforts to engage young people in policy-making processes at national level. He previously served in various political management positions at the national level. Throughout his career, he has been a foremost advocate for young people’s rights and the inclusion of young people in decision-making spaces.

Mr. Paullier is a Medical Doctor by training, specialized in pediatrics. He holds a Medical Doctor degree from the Universidad de la Republica Oriental de Uruguay and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from Universidad Católica de Uruguay.

Helen Griffiths is a Human Rights Officer with the Child and Youth Rights Unit of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She focuses on a range of child and youth rights issues, including implementing intergovernmental mandates, child and youth mental health, and justice.

She previously worked for the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland and Defence for Children International, where she advised on law, policy, and practice and conducted advocacy on children’s rights, particularly with international human rights mechanisms. She also worked for Human Rights Watch, supporting on a range of child rights issues and conducting research and advocacy on the rights of migrant and asylum-seeking children and on the right to education.

She holds a B.A. (Hons) from Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha / the University of Canterbury, an M.A. in International Peace and Security from King’s College London, and an LL.M. in International Human Rights Law and Practice from the University of York.

Iuri Carvalho is a Consultant at UNITAR's Multilateral Diplomacy Programme, where he coordinates the Youth Leadership Development Programme and works with governments to translate global agendas into real decisions, on diplomacy, education, and digital governance. He is Co-Founder of The Sustainability League and its Global Innovation Programme, The Sustainability Olympiad, which has brought together more than 100 universities and 35 educational institutions across five continents in three years, creating spaces where the next generation of leaders moves from awareness to action.

His professional experience spans diplomatic missions, multilateral institutions, and policy environments across multiple continents. At the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Brazil, he led data analytics for diplomatic decision-making and delivered training and inclusion programmes to over 1,500 staff across Missions in Brazil, Germany, India, and Mexico, receiving two U.S. Consular Affairs Leadership Awards in 2023. He conducted research at Tsinghua University in Beijing as an Associate at the China Case Center for Public Policy and Management and presented at the International Symposium on Employment and Social Security in Xinjiang on social rights and labour in the face of AI and technological change.

Iuri holds a bachelor's in business administration and a postgraduate qualification in Finance and Accounting from the Federal University of Goiás, Brazil, and is completing a Master's in Innovation, Human Development and Sustainability at the University of Geneva. He believes the real work of multilateral diplomacy, of education, and of responsible innovation is the same: to make sure no one is left outside the systems that shape their agency

Dunola Mgbachi supports ITU’s work with and for young people across the world, and amplifying youth voices in digital development. She started off her career in investment banking at Morgan Stanley and then Goldman Sachs, during which she also sat on the #iWill Fund Leadership Board influencing UK investment in youth social action, she served as the UK Coordinator of the Commonwealth Youth Peace Ambassadors Network (CYPAN) and was appointed as the U.K.’s delegate to the G(irls)20 Summit, the Youth G7 Summit, Women Political Leadership Forum and other international forums.

She founded and led Luton Lights - a charity to economically empower women and girls in Luton, UK from 2018-2023, and she formerly chaired the Avast Foundation Youth Leadership Board. Dunola was honoured on the 2022 Project Management Institute (PMI)’s Future 50 list of outstanding young project managers across the world, she has also been awarded a UK Women of The Future award and a Freedom of the City of London award for her continuous work to try to empower those who are marginalised in society. She is an alumnus of Royal Holoway University of London (BSc Economics, 2016) and Tsinghua University (Masters of Global Affairs as a Schwarzman Scholar in China, 2020).