International Youth Day – Our challenge. Our future

By Jaya Shankar VS

International Youth Day (IYD) celebrated on August 12 every year since 2000, is an awareness day designated by the United Nations. The Day is an opportunity for governments across the countries to draw attention to youth issues including cultural, political, humanitarian, societal and legal issues. The Day is filled with concerts, workshops, cultural events, and meetings with active participation from national and local government officials and youth organisations across the world.

History of the Day
In 1965, the Member States of the United Nations endorsed the Declaration on the Promotion among Youth of the Ideals of Peace, Mutual Respect and Understanding between Peoples. Two decades later, in 1985, the UN General Assembly called for the International Youth Year: Participation, Development, Peace, to emphasise the important and the effective role young people play in the world and their potential contribution to development and the ideals of the United Nations Charter. That same year, the Assembly also endorsed the guidelines for further planning and suitable follow-up in the field of youth, which are significant for their focus on young people as a broad category comprising various subgroups, rather than a single demographic entity.

In 1995, on the tenth anniversary of International Youth Year, the United Nations strengthened its commitment to young people by directing the international community's response to the challenges to youth into the next millennium. It did this by adopting an international strategy -- the World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond -- to address more effectively the problems of young people and to increase opportunities for their participation in society. The Programme provides a policy framework and practical guidelines for national action and international support to improve the situation of youth. The Programme identifies ten priority areas for action aimed at improving the situation and well-being of youth. These are: education, employment, hunger and poverty, health, environment, drug abuse, juvenile delinquency, leisure time activities, girls and young women, and the full and effective participation of youth in the life of society and in decision-making.

Following this, on 17 December 1999, in its resolution, the General Assembly endorsed the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth held in Lisbon, Portugal in August 1998 that 12 August be declared International Youth Day. The first International Youth Day was observed on August 12, 2000.

Theme for 2009 IYD
The theme for this year’s International Youth Day is Sustainability: Our challenge, our future. Apart from its popular significance of maintaining environmental balance and renewal, sustainability also includes the environment, society and the economy. It is true that our actions and attitudes help shape these three facets of life and their changing shapes in turn affect the way we are able to live our lives. There has to be a global sense of responsibility to help mitigate the negative effects of unsustainable behaviour as has been proven by the global crises in food, the economy and the environment. Today, the concept of the global village has gone beyond being a useful analogy to being a hard reality.

How the IYD is celebrated?
The General Assembly, while declaring 12 August as International Youth Day, had recommended that public information activities be organised to support the Day as a way to promote better awareness of the World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond, adopted by it in 1995.

Youth across the world team up on this Day to rally support and urge their governments, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions, businesses, and young people involved with youth development to focus on what has been done to further the World Programme of Action for Youth. Forums, public discussions, information campaigns highlighting the rights and issues the young people face today and how they can be addressed are distributed. Public awareness campaigns on youth issues and the role of media in promulgating the info are conducted. The United Nations Programme on Youth encourages youth organisations around the world to host community barter fairs for International Youth Day, where there is no money involved, only pure exchange of goods and services.

Youth issues and possible solutions
The development of any society depends heavily on the imaginations, ideals, visions, aspirations and energies of young men and women living there. And hence identifying the problems of this group and working towards solving them is very important.

The global youth population, ranging in age from 15 to 24 years, is an estimated 1.03 billion, or 18 percent of the total global population. And the majority of these young men and women live in developing countries. Projections say that these numbers are expected to increase well into the next century. And at a time when the world countries are reeling under heavy financial and economic constraints due to recession, the situation is simply not conducive for the effective development of youth welfare and related activities. Among them are: limited physical and financial resources for funding youth programmes and activities; inequities in social, economic and political conditions, including racism and xenophobia; gender discrimination; high levels of youth unemployment; armed conflict and confrontation; continuing deterioration of the global environment; increasing incidence of disease, hunger and malnutrition; changes in the role of the family; and inadequate opportunity for education and training.

As said, since this group is extremely important in the development of societies and communities and across all spectrums of governance in the countries, it has become doubly crucial to set forth goals and action plans towards the sustenance of this group. It is also equally important that the youth who are the energizers of today and the holders of tomorrow should prepare themselves to embrace the challenge of sustainability in its fullness as they help pave the way forward through the 21st century and beyond.

The solutions lie in the hands of the governments, international organisations and voluntary associations in the respective countries. Equally important is the receptive response from the youth which alone will guarantee that the governments’ efforts are fruitful. To begin with, the governments have to ensure education, access to employment opportunities, adequate food and nutrition, a physical and social environment that promotes good health and protection from disease, enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, participation in decision-making processes, and access to cultural, recreational and sports activities.

The world has been witnessing changes at all levels, environmental, political, economic and socio-cultural changes. And young people are both beneficiaries and victims of such changes which will inevitably affect us into the next century. The key is to ensure that the positive policy changes and development activities of the governments, international organisations and voluntary associations touch youth. The International Youth Day is a Day for the governments, international organisations and voluntary associations to remind themselves of the commitments they made to provide the youth with a conducive social, political, cultural, economic and financial environment. Together, we can make a positive change!