Crown Prince Hussein turns 21 today

AMMAN — HRH Crown Prince Hussein turns 21 on Sunday.

Prince Hussein is the eldest son of Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania. He was born in Amman on June 28, 1994 and was named Crown Prince by a Royal Decree in July 2009.

The Crown Prince graduated high school in 2012, from King’s Academy — a boarding school in Jordan modelled after Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts — and is currently majoring in international history at the School of Foreign Services at Georgetown University, Washington, DC.

On April 23, Prince Hussein became the youngest person ever to chair a UN Security Council meeting, leading an open debate on how youth can combat violent extremism and its “poisonous ideology”.

In his remarks, the Crown Prince told Security Council members that extremism “is the greatest challenge to world peace and security, and youth are its prime victims”.

Prince Hussein challenged the notion that youth are a marginalised segment of society: “They are not a marginalised group, they are a targeted one.” Cautioning that “the ideologies of darkness can reach where armies cannot”, the Crown Prince insisted that the world must empower youth to confront this threat.

At the time, referring to the Crown Prince, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he is “not yet 21 years old, but he is already a leader in the 21st century”.

Like his father, King Abdullah, and his grandfather and namesake, His Majesty the late King Hussein, Crown Prince Hussein is a peacemaker in the making. Speaking via video at the Round Square International Conference at his alma mater last year, the young Prince urged 600 students from around the globe to “remember those in this region and others around the world for whom conflict is a daily reality and peace a distant hope”.

He further urged his peers to fight intolerance and hatred, saying “the pursuit of peace begins with each one of us stepping out of our comfort zones, understanding how others see the world, speaking out in the face of injustice, and leading by example”.

Despite a demanding academic schedule, Prince Hussein has served as Regent in the Kingdom on several occasions, has accompanied His Majesty King Abdullah on working trips to the United States, South Korea, Kazakhstan and several GCC countries, and was in Jordan to receive Pope Francis alongside his father in May of last year.

The Crown Prince Foundation is being set up and will focus on youth initiatives in Jordan including “Haqiq”, Achieve in English, a youth volunteerism programme the Prince founded in 2013. Last year, the Crown Prince also launched the “Hearing Without Borders” programme, with a vision to make Jordan free from hearing disabilities and help deaf children across the Kingdom. To date, the programme has helped around 500 children with hearing disabilities. The Crown Prince’s initiatives also include “Qusai” aimed at training and certifying sports therapists.

The Crown Prince holds the rank of second lieutenant in the Jordan Armed Force-Arab Army and has participated in several military training courses.