Remarks by the President of the General Assembly
H.E. Ms. Annalena Baerbock
at the Closing of the High-Level plenary meeting of the General Assembly to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the World Programme of Action for Youth
September 25 2025, 5:30 PM
[As Delivered]
Excellencies,
Youth leaders,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
I thank all the participants in today’s meeting, including youth representatives, civil society, and government representatives.
Thank you for sharing your perspectives, aspirations, and most importantly your proposals with us.
We’ve heard good practices to improve quality education, increase opportunities for meaningful employment, and ensure online and offline safety for youth.
We’ve also heard lessons learned about how to make intergenerational partnership a reality.
Let us remember, this is not the first time we have recognized the importance of youth.
We did that three decades ago, but today we can really feel things are in progress hearing all the wonderful practices.
In addition to the World Programme of Action itself, this meeting also takes place just one year after the adoption of the Pact for the Future, to which many related in their statements, in which Member States reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen meaningful youth participation at national and international levels.
The Declaration on Future Generations also pledged to centre future generations in all decision-making.
So let us not only match these promises with action, but use the voices, experiences here today, and calls of the young people today to guide our work also tomorrow.
This might be the first high-level meeting especially commemorating youth in this format, but it will not be the last.
It’s not like our run in Central Park, only one mile, but this is a real marathon of engaging in youth participation and especially learning what we can achieve together.
Let us ensure that we don’t have to return here in another thirty years hearing the same demands from young people.
The time for action starts now.