Youth Advisory Committee of the President of the Republic
Members of the Youth Advisory Committee
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Lucija Karnelutti
Lucija is the first youth delegate of the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations (UN), having previously served as the Slovenian youth delegate to the UN. Since 2015, she has been actively involved in various youth organisations and working bodies focusing on youth advocacy in the fields of education, society and the environment. She is a founding member of Generation Climate Europe (GCE), currently the largest coalition of youth organisations in Europe working for a sustainable and just future, which was founded in response to the urgent need for action on climate change and as recognition that young people have a key role to play in shaping climate policies. She has also been a board member of the European school student organisation OBESSU, a member and President of the Intergenerational Coalition of Slovenia (MeKoS) for several years, and a member of the Council of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Youth, where she monitored and made recommendations on the interests of young people in various public policies at national and European levels. In both her mandate as EU Youth Delegate to the UN and her wider volunteer work, Lucija focuses on ensuring meaningful youth participation in UN dialogues in various policy areas, especially those that are not traditionally open to young people. In addition to climate and security issues, she places a strong emphasis on ensuring access to education in crisis situations, especially promoting girls’ education, working on future generations, and other cross-cutting topics with a view to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
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Sara Štiglic
Sara is active within civil society movements and NGOs in the fields of environmentalism, feminism and social justice, where she is involved in organising events, rallies, trainings, activist actions and public relations. She coordinates the public relations team of Youth for Climate Justice, where she is also an activist. She is also a Greenpeace activist. Sara believes her most important achievement is her participation in the “For Drinking Water” referendum campaign, where she was part of the expert and organisational team and volunteer coordinator in Ljubljana during the signature collection. In addition to her work in movements and associations, she has also received general training from the Ključ Society (a centre for the fight against trafficking in human beings) and training in working in a safe space for victims of trafficking in human beings. She has also worked as a journalist for Radio Solomon, Radio Študent, the newspaper Dnevnik and various student publications, covering political, social and cultural issues. She teaches at the Pionirski Dom Centre for Youth Culture and moderates various events.
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Vid Čeplak Mencin
Vid is a medical student actively involved in public health. Between 2017 and 2019, he was the leader of the Imuno project and successfully coordinated a non-profit public health project under the auspices of the Slovenian Medical Students’ International Committee Ljubljana, raising public awareness about vaccines and immunology. During this time, he worked closely with the Public Health Directorate of the Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Public Health. He has organised numerous educational workshops at secondary schools and at the University of Ljubljana’s faculties of social sciences and natural sciences. He has given lectures to professional staff in community health centres and, in cooperation with the Red Cross, lectured to staff in kindergartens and schools. He was a member of the organising teams for congresses and the influenza vaccination campaign for medical students. In addition to organising educational events and informing the public through social media, Vid has been involved in the design and publication of an educational children’s picture book on vaccination and helped in its distribution to health facilities. He participates in international meetings and training courses abroad. He wants to use his knowledge and dedication to co-create a better future for Slovenian healthcare. In his work, he relies on international and interdisciplinary networking and the introduction of good practices from abroad. He believes that by working together we can achieve better access to and quality of healthcare services for all Slovenian citizens.
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Luka Hiti
Luka is active in civil and political society because he wants to see a world where people have a positive relationship with the planet, our home, and believes that it is our duty to look after it properly. He is also committed to ensuring dignity, respect and a decent life for all people and to treating animals as our friends. Luka is a doctoral student in pharmacy, working as a researcher and assistant at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana. He is also a councillor in the Šiška District Authority, where he is serving his first term. In addition, he is a member of the executive board of the United Nations Association for Slovenia, where he is serving his second term, and was also a member of the executive board of the United Nations Youth Associations Network. Prior to that, he was President of the Youth Section of the United Nations Association for two years. During his studies, he worked with the Slovenian Third Age University, helping senior citizens to become computer-literate and better integrated into the modern digital society. He also volunteered at the Sonček care and work centre, which works to integrate individuals with cerebral palsy into society. Through his work in all of these and other areas, Luka has gained a deep insight into the problems, aspirations and values of young people. This comes both from working directly with and for young people (youth advocacy) and from the experience he has gained in dealing with the obstacles placed in his path as a young person in various social and private spheres of life.
