UNITED NATIONS (AP) β Oscar-winning actor and U.N. goodwill ambassador Forest Whitaker is urging world lawmakers to speak out to help former child soldiers in Uganda, South Sudan and Myanmar, gang members in Mexico and the United States, and orphans in Syria and other countries.
Whitaker, an envoy for the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said many young people around the world feel marginalized because nobody listens to them and believe their only recourse is violence and extremism.
He was the keynote speaker at the Fourth World Conference of Parliament Speakers held by the Inter-Parliamentary Union which opened Monday.
Whitaker says he has found that young men and women share “deep and widespread discontentment with the political status quo” and are struggling “to define their identities and discover their purposes.”
