10/08/1998
Mr President, Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure for UNICEF to participate in this World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth that is being hosted by the Government of Portugal. UNICEF's Executive Director, Carol Bellamy, is unfortunately unable to be with us today. I am honoured to present UNICEF's statement on her behalf.
UNICEF is very pleased to be able to add its voice to the expressions of growing concern from around the world about the need to give much more attention to young people -- more attention, more action and more opportunities for participation!
We are therefore very encouraged by the outcome of the Third World Youth Forum and by the recommendations adopted by the participants in Braga. We are also very happy to have had the opportunity to work with 20 young people, from all geographic regions, for two days prior to the Forum in a workshop organised in collaboration with WHO and UNAIDS that focused on discrimination, particularly relating to gender, race, disability and HIV/AIDS. The key issues, lessons learnt and specific action points that were identified during these two days included actions for both young people and adults, and were reflected in the Braga Youth Action Plan. They will make an important contribution to UNICEF's increasing involvement with programmes that promote the education, health, development, opportunities and protection of young people.Young people -- a growing focus for UNICEF
Young people (10-24 years) are a growing focus for UNICEF. There are many reasons for this, not the least being the dramatic improvements in child health that have created a new cohort of children that are surviving into their second decade of life. A focus on young people is important for demographic reasons, for public health, for social and economic progress, and for the enhancement of democratic societies. But for UNICEF, a focus on young people is above all else a question of human rights -- rights that we all need to respect and protect in our different capacities as governments, civil society organisations, private associations, families or individuals.
UNICEF is concerned about all youth, but it is particularly concerned about the younger ones. They are often the most vulnerable and are usually the group who are most different from both small children and adults, and therefore require specific attention. They are defined as "children" by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and as such are entitled to the rights recognised by this most widely and rapidly ratified Convention of all time. The Convention on the Rights of the Child reminds us that despite their evolving roles and relationships, their growing capacities and responsibilities, young people remain dependent on the actions of adults to meet and protect many of their rights, including to health, education and development.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child clearly outlines adolescents' rights to information, life and livelihood skills; to education, health services, recreation and a fair juvenile justice; to a safe and supportive environment free from exploitation and abuse (including the immediate environment of parents, peers and service providers, and the wider environment created by policies, legislation, social values and norms of behaviour); and to opportunities to participate as citizens.
The fact that these rights are frequently not met underlies many of the challenges confronting communities and countries around the world, such as violence, HIV/AIDS, and the use of tobacco and other drugs. It also acts as a major impediment to social and economic progress. In fact, what happens during this second decade of life has important implications for young people's health, capacities and opportunities as adults; for the survival and development of their children; and for their ability to be caring and supportive parents and responsible and active members of society.
UNICEF is also especially concerned about those young people who are particularly vulnerable and disadvantaged, who are unreached, forgotten or socially excluded as a result of a range of factors that have already been outlined by previous speakers. These factors are often compounded by a general lack of sensitivity, awareness or even interest in the plight of these young people who are surrounded by disparities and discrimination.
UNICEF is currently providing support for the action plans of the World Summit for Children and other major UN Conferences, including Beijing and Cairo. It is also promoting an effective follow up to other international meetings designed to protect young people against exploitation and abuse, including sexual exploitation and child labour. Furthermore, UNICEF is a leading actor in the implementation of the recommendations of the Machel report on the plight of children and young people affected by armed conflict.
The health, education, development and protection of young people are explicitly included in UNICEF's 1998-2000 Global Programme Priorities, through strategies that involve policy makers, schools, health services, parents, peers, the work setting, the media, civil society organisations and, of course, young people. A focus on meeting adolescents’ rights to development and participation will constitute a key element of UNICEF's global agenda for the new millennium.
Challenges ahead ...
UNICEF hopes that this landmark Conference will accomplish a number of important results.
1. We hope that this Conference will contribute to changing how adults in government, civil society organisations (CSOs) and families think about and relate to young people. For example:
* Young people are not all the same, and we have to ensure that these differences are reflected in our policies and programmes;.
* Meeting young people’s human rights is not only about focusing on the attitudes and behaviours of young people; it is, perhaps more importantly, about changing the attitudes and behaviours of adults;
* Young people do not just need information -- they need to develop the skills and confidence to access and use the information that already surrounds them;
* Young people cannot simply be seen as passive beneficiaries. They want to be involved in activities that improve their own lives and that of their peers. They need to be consulted, listened to and involved with respect. Their participation is not a threat but an opportunity to enrich decisions and enhance democracy. Involving young people is not a favour or a gift, but a right that needs to be enforced.
2. We hope that this Conference will help us identify processes that bring together at national level different sectors, organisations and actors, including young people, to clearly outline the problems (the state of the nations young people), identify the do-able priorities for action, and take the key interventions in a range of sectors to scale in a sustainable way. This will need to include the creation of safe and supportive learning environments, and other safe spaces where young people can have access to information, non-judgmental listening and opportunities to develop the skills that they need to make informed decisions; where they can share their problems, concerns and solutions, and where they can participate in activities that they enjoy, such as sports and recreation.
3. We hope that the recommendations of this Conference will include some special focus on families. The family needs to be the front line of protecting and meeting young people's rights, but there is a growing realisation that families are not always the safe and nurturing environments that young people need for their development. Working with parents will help us move beyond specific problems, such as drugs and HIV/AIDS, towards a focus on interventions that contribute more broadly to young people's development, by strengthening their resiliency and the capacities that protect them against a range of inter-related problems. In addition to working with parents it will be important for us to strengthen partnerships between young people and adults.
4. We hope that this meeting can provide guidance on how young people´s rights can be better addressed in the on-going reforms that are taking place in countries in a range of sectors (eg. health and education), and within the UN (eg. UNDAF and country level Theme Groups). It will also be important not only to link sectors and organisations, but also to make linkages across the life-cycle to programmes that provide the foundations for the second decade, for example those that focus on child survival and early childhood care for growth and development.
UNICEF looks forward to the opportunities provided by this World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth to strengthen and build on the wide-ranging partnerships at national, regional and global levels, that help transform our past commitments to young people into action -- with governments, within the UN family, with civil society organisations, with the private sector and the media, with religious organisations and of course with young people themselves.
5. Finally, we hope that this Conference will help identify and accelerate imaginative and pragmatic approaches to involving young people, to developing the skills (of young people and adults) and expanding the channels for their participation in the assessment, analysis and action phases of policies and programmes. Young people need to be involved not only in programmes that are directed to them, but more widely in democratic processes and civil society. Young people are agents of change. They are a key resource of the societies in which they live, but their energy, capacities and potential will only be fully realised if their human rights are met. Young people are not the problem -- the problem is that too often their rights are ignored and neglected.