The World Youth Forum:
Empowering Today’s Young People
By Katrin Eun-Myo Park, for the Chronicle

UNICEF Photo/Giacomo Pirozzi

The fourth session of the World Youth Forum of the United Nations System took place in Dakar, Senegal from 6 to 10 August 2001. Organized by the United Nations and the Senegalese National Youth Council, the Forum addressed the challenges young people face today and sought ways to enable them to communicate their concerns and hopes. It adopted the Dakar Youth Empowerment Strategy, which contains recommendations and tools to broaden young people’s involvement in their societies.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his message, emphasized the fight against AIDS and unemployment. He observed that every minute, five persons between the ages of 10 and 24 are infected with HIV. He also pointed out that about 70 million young people were unemployed around the world and called upon Governments and international organizations for support. “Young people should be at the forefront of global change and innovation”, the Secretary-General said. “Empowered, they can be key agents for development and peace. ... Let us ensure that all young people have every opportunity to participate fully in the lives of their societies.”

During the Forum, ten working groups reviewed the progress and obstacles of the implementation of the Braga Youth Action Plan, adopted at the third World Youth Forum, and the World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond. Youth delegates and UN representatives of the working groups also strove to identify new opportunities to empower young people and made recommendations in the following areas: education and information and communications technology; employment; health and population; hunger, poverty and debt; environment and human settlements; social integration; culture of peace; youth policy, participation and rights; young women and girls; and youth, sports and leisure-time activities.

The UN Department of Public Information has designed a new youth logo - dark blue and white, it is composed of two simple pen strokes illustrating the energy and enthusiasm of youth. The logo has been used in conjunction with youth-related events, including International Youth Day on 12 August.

Donald Charumbira, Secretary-General of the World Assembly of Youth and Chairperson of the fourth session, said the Forum was “a landmark meeting with the important task of drafting the Dakar Youth Empowerment Strategy as a set of concrete recommendations for youth empowerment”. The final document - aiming to help young people to participate in the decision-making processes of policies and programmes concerning youth issues - also served as an important input for the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa from 31 August to 7 September 2001.

One of the most important developments during the five-day session was the adoption of a special annex on HIV/AIDS, according to Mr. Charumbira. “The special annex eloquently states that the responsibility lies not only with Governments and civil society, but with youth themselves, in taking action to fight the epidemic.”

More than 300 representatives of international and national youth organizations worldwide, including youths from East Timor and Palestine, participated in the Forum. Also represented were regional intergovernmental organizations and more than 16 UN agencies, programmes and funds, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations Environment Programme. The Governments of Finland, the Netherlands and Norway, the Ford Foundation and other UN bodies had contributed to financing it.

Part of the United Nations efforts to reach out to young people everywhere, the fourth World Youth Forum was the first to be held in Africa, following sessions held in Vienna, Austria in 1991 and 1996, and in Braga, Portugal in 1998. The Forum’s mandate, contained in paragraph 125 of the World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond, emphasizes the importance of communications between youth organizations and the UN system.

Links:
Fourth Session of the World Youth Forum of the United Nations System (Dakar, 6-10 August 2001)