One Young World Politician of the Year 2020 - Shortlist Announced

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Introducing the One Young World Politician of the Year Shortlist

 

These 15 young politicians have all been shortlisted because of the considerable impact they have made to politics. 

The One Young World Politician of the Year Award recognises five of the world's most outstanding politicians between the ages of 18 - 35, who are using their positions to have a positive impact on young people in their communities and countries. Through their important work, these candidates highlight the benefit of including young people in politics. 

The shortlisted nominees are currently being reviewed by One Young World’s expert judging panel (pictured below), who will decide the final five winners.

The winners will be announced in mid-July and will be presented with this award at the One Young World 2021 Summit in Munich.


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The Shortlist

Amelia Womack, 35, United Kingdom

Amelia is the Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, and the youngest person in a party leadership position in the UK. She made her name in politics for supporting young people to run as candidates in local elections and coordinating the Green Party’s 2014 youth manifesto. Amelia co-founded Another Europe is Possible, the left-wing EU Referendum remain campaign.

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Cathy Wong, 35, Canada

Cathy is the President of the City of Montreal’s Municipal Council. Cathy is a daughter of a Vietnamese refugee family, the first female president of the City of Montreal’s municipal council and the first person of Chinese origin elected in Montreal. Cathy has also represented youth’s voice, notably on the board of the International Youth Offices of Quebec, and on Elections Canada’s advisory committee to find solutions to increase youth’s electoral participation.

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Ebba Hermansson, 24, Sweden

Ebba Hermansson is the youngest Member of Parliament in Sweden, elected at only 22 years old. She is her party’s spokesperson on matters regarding gender equality, and has among other activities contributed to the government by introducing a gender equality policy target for integration.

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Emma Theofelus, 24, Namibia

Emma Theofelus is the Deputy Minister of Information, Communication and Technology in Namibia. At the age of 24, she is one of the African continent’s youngest cabinet ministers. Previously she served as the Deputy Speaker of the Youth Parliament of the Republic of Namibia and the Junior Mayor of the City of Windhoek amongst other roles.

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Erik Marquardt, 33, Germany

Erik Marquardt is a Member of the European Parliament and the German Green Party. Erik Marquardt is a staunch advocate for refugee rights, this year he spent several weeks on Lesbos to work for an improvement of the situation for refugees in the Greek camps. Besides his political activities, he is one of the initiators of the pan-European campaign “Leave No One Behind”.

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Joanah Mamombe, 27, Zimbabwe

Joanah Mamombe is Zimbabwe’s youngest female Member of Parliament. She is a youth member of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the main opposition party in Zimbabwe and Joanah is also a respected human rights and gender activist. Through her active role in Parliament, championing changes in law and speaking truth to power, she continues to highlight the plight of the young person.

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Michael Tubbs, 30, United States

Upon taking office in January 2017, Michael Tubbs became Stockton’s first African-American Mayor and the youngest mayor in the history of the United States to represent a city with a population over 100,000. Under his leadership, Stockton has been elevated from a bankrupt city to the sixth most fiscally healthy city in the nation.
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Ofelia Fernández, 20, Argentina

Ofelia is a Member of the Buenos Aires City Legislature. Elected at the age of 19, she is the youngest person in history to assume that seat. She is a feminist activist, and garnered a lot of attention and support from Argentinian youth as a prominent voice on abortion rights.

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Sarah Elago, 30, The Philippines

Sarah Elago is a Member of the Philippines House of Representatives. She is the first female representative of the youth party-list, KABATAAN (Filipino for young people). Currently on her second term and part of 12 House Committees, she is youngest of the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development, a member of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, and serves as Ambassador for various non-profit organizations.

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Shamma AlMazrui, 27, United Arab Emirates

Shamma AlMazrui was appointed as the UAE Minister of State for Youth Affairs in February 2016, at 22-years old making her the world’s youngest cabinet minister. She is also Chair of the Emirates Youth Council and Federal Youth Authority as well as the Vice-Chair of the Arab Youth Center covering over 15 initiatives across 22 MENA nations.

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Syed Saddiq, 27, Malaysia

Syed is a Member of Parliament and Youth Chief of The Malaysian Indigenous Party (Bersatu). Previously, he served as the Minister of Youth and Sports from 2018-2020. As Minister of Youth and Sports he initiated the Yellow R Project (Projek Reben Kuning) aimed to give second chances at employment to young ex-convicts.

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Tabata Amaral, 26, Brazil

Tabata Amaral is the Federal Deputy for São Paulo, at 26 years old she was the 6th most voted House Representative of the state of Sao Paulo. Tabata is the co-founder of Mapa Educacao, a movement with the mission of bringing education to the center of the Brazilian political debate while engaging hundreds of thousands of Brazilian youth, educators, and officials

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Tomoya Hosoda, 28, Japan

Tomoya is a City Council Member of Iruma, Elected as the youngest city council member of 25 years old in 2017. In addition, he was the first politician in the world who was elected after coming out as a transgender man. After being elected he set up a telephone consultation counter to help minority youth in Iruma. 

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Yacine Oualid, 26, Algeria

Yacine Oualid is the first ever Minister of Startups in Algeria. At the age of 26, he is one of the youngest ministers in Africa. He is an active member of the tech community, and has founded several tech organisations before embarking on his political career.

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Zarifa Ghafari, 28, Afghanistan

Zarifa is the Mayor of Maydan Wardak Province, and is the first female mayor in the history of Afghanistan. She is also in charge of the female division of an independent journalists association where she has performed and taken care for women journalists’ security, safety and obtaining rights abroad as well as inside the county.

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