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WORLD PROGRAMME OF ACTION FOR YOUTH TO THE YEAR 2000 AND BEYOND
The UN General Assembly passed resolution 49/152 December 23, 1994 on the International Youth Year in which it requested the Commission for Social Development at its 34th session to draft a programme of action for youth towards the year 2000 and beyond. Then, on December 14, 1990, the General Assembly passed resolution 45/103 requesting the Secretary General to prepare a draft world youth programme of action towards the year 2000 and beyond. This Programme of Action was adopted without vote and without reference to a Main Committee by the UN General Assembly December 14, 1995. It is a 24 page document.
SUMMARY
(written by young people)
INTRODUCTION
3. The Secretary General is requested to report to the fifty-second session (1997) through the Commission for Social Development and the Economic and Social Council on the progress made in the implementation of the Programme of Action.
4. UN General Assembly invites Member States to “include, whenever possible, youth representatives in their delegations to the General Assembly and other meetings of relevant United Nations bodies, with a view to stimulating the participation of young women and men in the implementation of the Programme of Action.”
PREAMBLE
1. “The decade since the observance of International Youth Year: Participation, Development, Peace has been a period during which the world experienced fundamental political, economic and socio-cultural changes. These changes will inevitably affect at least the first decade of the twenty-first century as well.
2. Young people represent agents, beneficiaries and victims of major societal changes and are generally confronted by a paradox: to seek to be integrated into an existing order or to serve as a force to transform that order. Young people in all parts of the world, living in countries at different stages of development and different socio-economic settings, aspire to full participation in the life of society.”
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
3. “The World Programme of Action for Youth provides a policy framework and practical guidelines for national action and international support to improve the situation of young people. It contains proposals for action to the year 2000 and beyond aiming at achieving the objectives of the International Youth Year and at fostering conditions and mechanisms to promote improved well-being and livelihood among young people.
4. The Programme of Action focuses in particular on measures to strengthen national capacities in the field of youth and to increase the quality and quantity of opportunities available to young people for full, effective and constructive participation in society.”
I. UNITED NATIONS DECLARATION OF INTENT ON YOUTH: PROBLEMS AND POTENTIALS
5. States Members of the UN have agreed to work towards:
(a) “Attainment of an educational level commensurate with their aspirations;
(b) Access to employment opportunities equal to their abilities;
(c) Food and nutrition adequate for full participation in the life of society;
(d) A physical and social environment that promotes good health , protection from disease and addiction and that is free from all types of violence;
(e) Human rights and fundamental freedoms without distinctions as to race, sex, language, religion or any other forms of discrimination;
(f) Participation in decision-making processes;
(g) Places and facilities for cultural, recreational and sports activities to improve the living standards of young people in both rural and urban areas.”
II. DEVELOPMENT SETTING
9. “In 1995, the world youth population -defined by the United Nations as the age cohort 15-24 -is estimated to be 1.03 billion, or 18 percent of the total world population. The majority of the world youth population (84 per cent in 1995) lives in developing countries. This figure is projected to increase to 89 per cent in 2025.”
10. “Apart from the statistical definition of the term “youth” mentioned above, however, the meaning of the term “youth” varies in different societies around the world. Definitions of youth have changed continuously in response to fluctuating political, economic and socio-cultural circumstances.”
III. STRATEGIES AND POLICY SPECIFICS
14. “The themes identified by the General Assembly for International Youth Year-namely, participation, development and peace-reflect a predominant concern of the international community with distributive justice, popular participation and quality of life. These are reflected in the guidelines, and they represent overall themes of the World Programme of Action on Youth as well.”
15. This document builds on the Rio Declaration (Earth Summit), the Vienna Declaration (World Conference on Human Rights, the Programme of Action (UN Population Conference), Copenhagen Declaration (World Summit for Social Development), Platform for Action (Fourth Women’s Conference).
[Neither The World Summit for Children or the Convention on the Rights of the Child, covering people up to the age of 18, are never once mentioned in the entire Programme which defines youth as people 15-24.]
IV. PRIORITY AREAS
A. EDUCATION
21-4. Educational programs and opportunities for training must be made more equitable, affordable and accessible. Exchange programs should be encouraged.
Proposals for Action
1. Improve the level of basic education, skill training and literacy among youth.
2. Cultural heritage and religious diversity should be promoted.
3. Mutual respect and understanding for the ideals of peace, solidarity and tolerance among youth should be promoted.
4. Vocational and professional training programs should be enhanced.
5. Human Rights education must be promoted. Governments should ensure the UN Decade for Human Rights Education(1995-2005) is observed in schools to make youth aware of their rights and their responsibilities.
6. Training for individual and cooperative enterprise should be developed and self-contained enterprise centres where young people may plan and test their enterprise-venture concepts should be established.
7. Infrastructures for training youth workers and leaders should be developed.
B. EMPLOYMENT
33-4. The many problems of youth employment and unemployment demand urgent attention as well as the “prohibition of forced labour and child labour.”
Proposals for Action
1. Opportunities for self-employment should be created.
2. Employment opportunities for specific groups of the youth population should be funded. “Youth should be directly involved in the planning and the implementation of these programmes.”
3. Voluntary community services involving youth should be established possibly providing alternatives to military service and be a required part of the curricula. Youth should be involved in their designing and implementation.
4. Employment opportunities should be developed for youth to keep up with technological advances.
C. HUNGER AND POVERTY
40-1. Youth are especially vulnerable to the ravages of hunger and poverty. “Hunger is the result of many factors: mismanagement of food production and distribution; poor accessibility; maldistribution of financial resources; unwise exploitation of natural resources; unsustainable patterns of consumption; environmental pollution; natural and human-made disasters; conflicts between traditional and contemporary production systems; irrational population growth; and armed conflicts.”
Proposals for Action
1. Make farming more rewarding and life in agricultural areas more attractive. Enhance educational and cultural services and other incentives in rural areas. Encourage exchange program and events between rural and urban youth.
2. Develop skill-training programs for income-generation by youth based on the needs of young people for the development of production and achievement of food security. special attention should go to youth in distressed circumstances.
3. Governments should provide land grants for youth and youth organizations. The FAO and the International Labour Organization are invited to disseminate relevant information.
4. “Non-governmental organizations should organize direct-marketing groups, including production and distribution cooperatives to improve current marketing systems and to ensure that young farmers have access to them. The aim of such groups should be to reduce food shortages and losses from defective systems of food storage and transport to markets.”
D. HEALTH
48-9. Young people suffer from poor health because of societal conditions, lack of safe and sanitary environments, malnutrition, the risk of infections, the growing consumption of tobacco, alcohol and drugs and destructive activity. The reproductive needs of adolescents have been ignored.
Proposals for Action
1. Basic health services is the indispensable responsibility of each government. Efforts should be increased against major diseases. Education about health matters must be stressed.
2. Governments should include information about primary health knowledge and practices in curricula.
3. Education must be developed about sexual and reproductive health and relevant topics.
4. Governments should develop accessible, available and affordable primary health care services of high quality for those with sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS.
5. Good sanitation and hygiene programmes should be promoted.
6. Diseases and illnesses among youth resulting from poor health practices should be prevented. Addiction of drugs, tobacco and alcohol should be discouraged by education.
7. Sexual abuse, especially of young women, should be eliminated including measures strengthened to protect children, adolescents and youth from neglect, abandonment, exploitation and abuse.
8. Malnutrition must be combated.
E. ENVIRONMENT
64. The deterioration of the environment is a primary concern of young people worldwide.
Proposals for Action
1. Environmental education and training must be integrated into education and training programmes.
2. Dissemination about environmental issues and the use of environmentally sound technologies must be facilitated.
3. The participation of youth must be strengthened in the protection, preservation and improvement of the
environment.
4. The role of the media must be enhanced as a tool for widespread dissemination of environmental issues.
F. DRUG ABUSE
73-6. Youth are especially vulnerable to drugs and ensuing violence. International drug trafficking must be stopped with inter-country cooperation. Treatment programmes must be made available.
Proposals for Action
1. Preventative education needs to be increased.
2. Medical and paramedical students should be trained in the rational use of pharmaceuticals.
3. Treatment and rehabilitation facilities must be improved and increased.
4. The criminal justice and prison systems need to provide alternative strategies for young drug abusers.
G. JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
86. Prevention of juvenile delinquency should be greatly strengthened.
Proposals for Action
1. Priority should be given to preventative measures.
2. Violence must be prevented.
3. Rehabilitation services and programmes must serve better.
H. LEISURE-TIME ACTIVITIES
91. Leisure time activities are important to the prevention of drug abuse and crime.
Proposals for Action
1. Leisure-time activities should be an integral part of youth programmes.
2. Governments should help fund places to be used for leisure-time activities at educational institutions.
3. Leisure-time activities must be incorporated into urban and rural planning.
4. The media should be encouraged to promote an understanding of youth.
I. GIRLS AND YOUNG WOMEN
98. One of the most important tasks of this youth policy is to improve the situation of girls and young women.
Proposals for Action
1. Discrimination and neglect in childhood can initiate a lifelong exclusion from society. This must be stopped. Policies of equal participation can help.
2. Universal access to education must be made available.
3. Equal treatment must be provided in health care.
4. Girls and young women must be protected against employment exploitation.
5. International cooperation is needed to prevent all kinds of abuse and violence.
J. FULL AND EFFECTIVE PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH IN THE LIFE OF SOCIETY AND DECISION-MAKING
104-6. Youth bring a perspective that needs to be taken into account. Youth organizations are important forums for developing skills necessary for the effective participation in society.
Proposals for Action
1. Youth need access to information.
2. More opportunities for learning about rights and responsibilities are needed.
3. Financial, technical and educational support should be increased to youth organizations.
4. Youth should have input into designing national, regional and international policies.
5. Cooperation and exchange between youth organizations should be encouraged.
6. Governments should be invited to strengthen their investment in young people.
V. MEANS OF IMPLEMENTATION
108- Governments must commit to implement the World Programme of Action for Youth and mechanisms 111. must be developed to do so. The Gender perspective declared in Cairo, Copenhagen and Beijing must be included.
A. NATIONAL LEVEL
B. REGIONAL COOPERATION
C. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
1. Data collection and dissemination must be developed and increased.
2. More research and policy studies affecting youth must be made.
3. The UN needs to review its mid-term reviewing process to give appropriate consideration to youth.
4. Technical cooperation and advisory services need a new dimension.
5. Outreach and partnership among specialized constituencies is vital in implementing the Programme for Action. Governments must have the support of local communities. Channels of communication between the UN and youth NGOs must be opened wider. The private sector has an important role in implementation of the Programme. Relevant organizations must involve young people more.
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