Policies and Programmes Involving Youth

Calls upon Member States to consider, on a voluntary basis, the set of indicators for the World Programme of Action for Youth, as proposed by the Secretary-General in his report,¹⁸ when monitoring and assessing the implementation of the Programme of Action for Youth;

Urges Member States to promote equal opportunities for all, to eliminate all forms of discrimination and violence against all young people, including those based, inter alia, on race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, and to foster social inclusion and integration, including for young persons with disabilities, young migrants, young people in rural and remote areas and Indigenous youth on an equal basis with others;

Also urges Member States to protect, promote and fulfil the realization and full enjoyment by all young people of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and relevant international human rights instruments, in the implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth, while ensuring that youth policies and programmes and their planning, design, implementation, monitoring and review include the views, perspectives and priorities of youth and are adequately resourced, transparent and accountable;

Urges Member States to provide all young people with opportunities for full, effective, meaningful, constructive and inclusive participation in society, in all spheres of political, civil, economic, social and cultural life, including engagement in policymaking and decision-making processes, including in designing and implementing policies, programmes and initiatives;

Urges Member States and relevant United Nations organs and entities, when designing, deploying or evaluating policies and programmes involving youth, including to eliminate all forms of discrimination and violence against all young people, to pay special attention to the specific needs of young women and girls, young persons with disabilities, young migrants, young people in rural and remote areas, Indigenous youth and young people belonging to vulnerable groups or in vulnerable situations;

Urges Member States to address the challenges faced by young women, including through combating gender stereotypes and negative social norms that perpetuate all forms of discrimination and violence against girls and young women, to engage, educate and support young men and boys to take responsibility for their behaviour in this regard, to support them to be positive role models for gender equality, and to take measures aimed at eliminating all forms of violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, and harmful practices, including but not limited to female genital mutilation and child, early and forced marriage;

Also urges Member States to strengthen policies and programmes that seek to ensure the full, equal and meaningful participation of young women in all spheres of political, civil, economic, social and cultural life as equal partners;

Calls upon Member States to guarantee systematic, equal, inclusive and meaningful youth participation in the digital environment, to promote safety on the Internet, to raise the awareness of young persons around harmful and sensitive content online, to take measures against cyberstalking and cyberbullying, to develop remedies for violations and abuses of privacy rights in the digital age and to hold perpetrators and social media platforms accountable, when such violations and abuses occur, and to take active measures to counter hate speech, racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, both online and offline;

Encourages Member States, the private sector, international, regional and subregional organizations, civil society, the media, academia and research institutions and technical communities and individuals to strengthen international cooperation on artificial intelligence capacity-building, including through investment in youth digital literacy and capacity-building for meaningful participation in digital governance, and take necessary and positive steps, as appropriate, to eliminate barriers faced by young people, including young women and girls, young persons with disabilities, Indigenous youth, youth in local communities, those living in poverty and in rural and remote areas, and those in vulnerable situations;

Also encourages Member States to ensure that the benefits of artificial intelligence are available to all young people, to promote digital inclusion, safety and accessibility, to address digital divides, including the gender digital divide, with a view to achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, through investment, education, training, technological innovation, use and application, and to mitigate risks of bias, exclusion and discrimination in artificial intelligence for young people, in particular in education, employment and access to public services;

Further encourages Member States to reduce structural asymmetries in access to digital resources, including affordable connectivity, computing capacity and skills, in particular for developing countries, through international cooperation, capacity-building and knowledge-sharing, and to promote the integration of digital tools and literacy into national education systems by updating curricula, supporting teacher training, and ensuring equitable access to digital resources and tools, including artificial intelligence, with particular attention to the needs of young women and girls;

Urges Governments to promote science, technology and innovation cooperation and collaboration with, as well as foreign direct investment in and trade with and among, developing countries, as well as international support, which are fundamental to enhancing developing countries’ ability to benefit from technological advances that could also benefit young people’s skills;

Urges Member States to address the high rates of youth unemployment, underemployment, vulnerable employment, informal employment and young people not in employment, to invest in vocational training and skills development, particularly in developing countries, particularly digital skills, to scale up social protection interventions for young people, to eradicate poverty and end hunger and malnutrition, to tackle the lack of adequate and affordable housing for young people, to invest in both formal and non‑formal education, and in the redistribution of unpaid care and domestic work, and to promote cultural diversity through youth-oriented policies;

Also urges Member States to promote health literacy, including by raising awareness of the benefits of sports, physical activity and proper nutrition, to increase access to youth-friendly healthcare services, including those related to sexual and reproductive healthcare services, menstrual health, to provide youth-friendly information services about HIV/AIDS free from stigma, and treatment from malaria, hepatitis, Ebola, cholera, waterborne diseases, neglected tropical diseases and other communicable diseases, and to ensure sustainable, affordable, fair, equitable, effective, efficient and timely access to medical countermeasures;

Calls upon Member States to accelerate efforts to scale up scientifically accurate age-appropriate comprehensive education, relevant to cultural contexts, that provides adolescent girls and boys and young women and men, in and out of school, consistent with their evolving capacities, with information on sexual and reproductive health, gender equality and the empowerment of women, human rights, physical, psychological and pubertal development, and power in relationships between women and men, to enable them to build self-esteem and informed decision-making, communication and risk reduction skills and to develop respectful relationships, in full partnership with young persons, parents, legal guardians, caregivers, educators and healthcare providers;

Urges Member States to strengthen intergenerational partnerships, multigenerational dialogue and intergenerational knowledge transfer, including by fostering opportunities for voluntary and regular interactions between young people and older persons, to involve youth and youth organizations in climate and environmental policymaking, to recognize that young people, particularly in developing countries, including African countries and small island developing States, are disproportionately vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, and to develop preventative programmes to equip young people with the tools and skills to contribute to the prevention of violence;

Encourages Member States and relevant United Nations organs and entities to take concrete measures to assist and protect young people in situations of armed conflict, and to increase the full, meaningful and effective participation of youth, especially young women, in conflict prevention and resolution, in peacebuilding and in humanitarian action, while ensuring that young people continue to enjoy their rights to education and health even in situations of conflict, and recognizing the importance of protecting schools, universities, hospitals and medical facilities from attacks and military use, in contravention of international humanitarian law;

Urges Member States to take concerted action, in conformity with international law, to remove obstacles to the full realization of the rights of young people living under foreign occupation, colonial rule and in other areas of conflict or post-conflict situations in order to promote the achievement of the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;

Encourages Member States to include youth delegates in their delegations at all relevant discussions in the General Assembly and its subsidiary bodies, the Economic and Social Council and its functional commissions and other relevant United Nations conferences, as appropriate, bearing in mind the principles of gender balance and non‑discrimination, and emphasizes that such youth representatives should be selected through a transparent process;

Encourages the United Nations Youth Office to work closely with Member States, United Nations entities, civil society, youth organizations, academia and the media in fulfilling its mandate, in accordance with resolution 76/306;

Calls upon the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat to continue efforts to further collaborate and coordinate, within its mandate, on youth-related economic and social matters, including, inter alia, with Governments on the United Nations Youth Delegate Programme;

Calls upon donors to actively contribute to the United Nations Youth Fund in order to facilitate the participation of youth representatives from developing countries in the activities of the United Nations, taking into account the need for greater geographical balance in terms of youth representation, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to take appropriate action to encourage contributions to the Fund;

Requests United Nations entities, within their existing mandates and within existing resources, to continue their coordination towards a more coherent, comprehensive and integrated approach to youth development, calls upon them to support local, national, regional and international efforts in addressing challenges hindering youth development, and encourages close collaboration with Member States and other relevant stakeholders, including civil society;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit a report, in an accessible format, to the General Assembly at its eighty-second session on the implementation of the present resolution, and be prepared in consultation with Member States, with relevant United Nations organs and entities, including specialized agencies, funds, programmes and regional commissions, and with civil society, particularly youth, youth-led and youth-focused organizations.