At the end of July, our UN Rep in New York attended a High Level Meeting on Youth as part of the UN Year of Youth. Carol Themm reports back.
The
General Assembly held a high Level meeting on youth with 60 international
speakers from government and civil society to understand the participation of
the "dot-com generation" in peace and development efforts. Senior Government
officials produced an outcome document entitled "High-Level meeting on
Youth: Dialogue and Mutual Understanding" which was adopted by consensus. Two
interactive Round Tables preceded the adoption with the following themes:
- Strengthening international
cooperation regarding youth and enhancing dialogue, mutual understanding
and active youth participation as indispensable elements towards achieving social
integration, full employment and the eradication of poverty. - Challenges to youth development
and opportunities for poverty eradication, employment and sustainable
development.
Press Release:
United Nations entities and their partners were requested to
strengthen international cooperation and the exchange of good practices through
the Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development, to develop additional measures
to address youth challenges and engage in close collaboration with States, as
well as civil society, on the issue. Donors were called upon, in
addition, to support the implementation of the outcome document, as well as the
World Programme of Action for Youth.
Among the areas of action, the Assembly called for support
initiatives to anticipate and offset “the negative social and economic
consequences of globalization and to maximize its benefits for young
people”. A particular focus in that regard was inclusive job creation,
skill development and vocational training to meet specific labour market needs,
among other measures. The creation of a global strategy on youth
employment, incorporating regional strategies, was urged. Related provisions in the text called for measures to
strengthen educational opportunity and to promote human rights knowledge among
youth, as well as dialogue for mutual understanding.
The Assembly pledged to strengthen the use
of information technology to improve the lives of young people, ensure that
they enjoyed the highest attainable standards of health, countering such
threats as HIV/AIDS and obesity, and to promote and protect the human rights
and fundamental freedoms of migrants. Support was urged for youth-led
organizations to strengthen their capacity to participate in national and
international development activities.
Following the adoption of that document, 60 speakers
voiced their support for the participation of young people in national and
global efforts for peace, development and human rights, urging global attention
to overcoming obstacles to the self-realization of youth consistent with the
wide-ranging outcome document.
The outcome document, said Benin’s
President, Boni Yayi, was “the crowning point for the International Year of
Youth”. He stressed that the energy exhibited in the revolutions in the
Arab world made young people agents for change and an invaluable asset for
development all over the world. “The twenty-first century will be the
century of human capital, embodied in young people,” he said.
Several speakers proposed that the United Nations
create a body dedicated to overcoming the severe problems, such as
unemployment, and to foster youth
involvement in solving global problems. The Minister of Youth of the Dominican
Republic said: “Let us show that we are
aware of the titanic responsibility on our shoulders.”Youth delegates from Germany
and Sweden
pressed for the empowerment of youth organizations, prioritizing the issues of
employment, education and migration. The youth delegate from Germany,
asking if young people really had been involved in decisions regarding the
Meeting, urged “the involvement of youth in the entire decision-making process,
beginning with defining the relevant issues and ending with the implementation
and evaluation of the policies”.
To read the full Press Release please click here.
Visit the UN Year of Youth website here.
Read the outcome document in French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Russian
Read the outcome document in English