Two delegates from Gibraltar, Jared Peralta and Kyle Bautista, are participating in the latest session of the Commonwealth Youth Parliament, which is taking place virtually this week.

Mr Peralta was selected for his past experience in this kind of event and Mr Bautista was selected after an essay competition last year.

A total of 59 participants from 31 countries across the Commonwealth are taking part this time round.

This session of the Commonwealth Youth Parliament is centred on a proposed Bill for a COVID-19 Youth Relief Fund, with participants split into Government, Opposition and Independents. The delegates will spend the week learning and implementing the procedures used in actual Parliaments including debating the Bill, discussing amendments both in plenary and in committee, and eventually voting the proposed legislation into the statute books.

This is the third time that young people from Gibraltar take part in this event, following Gibraltar’s attendance in Jersey in 2018 and in Delhi in 2019.

The Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia, who is the Minister with responsibility for relations with the Commonwealth, said: “The Government is delighted that two young people from Gibraltar have chosen to give up their time in order to participate in this meeting. This reflects the policy of the Government of increasing our level of engagement with the organisations of the Commonwealth going forward. The Heads of Government meeting in Kigali, Rwanda was cancelled earlier this year as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. This meant that many of the events planned around that meeting, like the Commonwealth Youth Forum, did not take place either. It is therefore good to see that this one has been able to go ahead virtually and I am sure that both Jared and Kyle will prove to be worthy ambassadors for Gibraltar.”