Policies and Programmes Involving Youth

A/RES/64/130No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 61bSocial development, including questions relating to the world social situation, and to youth, ageing, disabled persons and the family, published in 2010.

What other versions does this mandate have?

18 versions · 1990–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/180

2025A/RES/80/180Policies and programmes involving youthLatestCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/78/179Policies and programmes involving youthCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/76/137Policies and programmes involving youthCompare with previous version
2020A/RES/74/121Policies and programmes involving youthCompare with previous version
2018A/RES/72/146Policies and programmes involving youthCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What does this mandate say?

32 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms the World Programme of Action for Youth;

Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General entitled “Implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth: progress and constraints with respect to the well-being of youth and their role in civil society”;

Stresses that young people are often among the main victims of armed conflict, expresses its deep concern at the violations of international humanitarian law that undermine the protection of the human rights of civilians in armed conflict, calls upon Member States, in accordance with the World Programme of Action for Youth, to take concrete measures to further protect and assist young women and men in these situations, bearing in mind that armed and other types of conflict and terrorism and hostage-taking still persist in many parts of the world and that aggression, foreign occupation and ethnic and other types of conflict are an ongoing reality affecting young persons in nearly every region, from which they need to be protected, and also calls upon Member States to recognize young women and men as important actors in conflict prevention, peacebuilding and post-conflict processes;

Urges Member States to strengthen or establish, in collaboration with young people and youth-led organizations, youth-friendly substance abuse prevention programmes and affordable treatment and rehabilitation programmes, in accordance with existing anti-drug conventions and other instruments of the United Nations, in order to address the vulnerability of young people to substance abuse and to avoid the marginalization of young people with a substance abuse problem;

Emphasizes that the deterioration of the natural environment, including the impacts of climate change and loss of biodiversity, is one of the principal concerns of young people worldwide and has direct implications for the well-being and empowerment of youth both now and in the future, and therefore urges Member States:

To promote environmental awareness and protection among youth, inter alia, by supporting programmes for non-formal education implemented by youth-led organizations, in accordance with the goals of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development;

To strengthen the participation of young people, as important actors in the protection, preservation and improvement of the environment at the local, national and international levels, as envisioned in Agenda 21;

To ensure the involvement of young people in the renewable and sustainable energy sectors, through access to adequate education and training, the promotion of youth employment and entrepreneurship opportunities and cooperation initiatives in these sectors;

Reaffirms the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, urges Member States to take measures, including the involvement of boys and young men, to promote gender equality in all aspects of society and to eliminate violence against girls and young women as a matter of priority, and notes the importance of promoting women leaders in the public and private sectors as role models for young women and girls;

Calls upon Member States to work to ensure that young people enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health by providing youth with access to sustainable health systems and social services without discrimination and by paying special attention to, and raising awareness of, nutrition, including eating disorders and obesity, to the effects of non-communicable and communicable diseases and to sexual and reproductive health, as well as to measures to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS;

Reaffirms the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS, and urges Member States to fulfil their commitments on the provision of universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support in order to halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015, engage young people in the AIDS response, ensure education and employment opportunities to reduce vulnerability to HIV, provide youth-friendly health services, including voluntary and confidential counselling and testing, continue efforts to eliminate the stigma of, and discrimination against, young people living with HIV, and ensure that HIV/AIDS policies and programmes are reviewed so that they contribute to reducing the particular vulnerability of young women and girls to HIV;

Stresses the potential of information and communications technology to improve the quality of life of young people, and calls upon Member States, with the support of the United Nations system, donors, the private sector and civil society, to ensure universal, non-discriminatory, equitable, safe and affordable access to information and communications technology, especially in schools and public places, and to remove the barriers to bridging the digital divide, including through transfer of technology and international cooperation, as well as to promote the development of locally relevant content and implement measures to equip young people with the knowledge and skills to use information and communications technology appropriately and safely;

Recognizes the importance of strengthening intergenerational partnerships and solidarity among generations, and in this regard calls upon Member States to promote opportunities for voluntary, constructive and regular interaction between young people and older generations in the family, the workplace and society at large;

Urges Member States to develop policies and programmes to reduce youth violence and youth involvement in crime and ensure that judicial systems and rehabilitation services are safe, fair, age-appropriate and in accordance with the relevant international human rights instruments and promote the well-being of youth by:

Promoting systematic and comprehensive prevention measures regarding youth violence;

Providing non-discriminatory access to education, opportunities for decent employment and leisure programmes that improve the competencies and self-esteem of young people in detention;

Promoting, where appropriate, the physical and legal separation of juvenile from adult judicial and penal systems;

Promoting alternatives to detention and institutionalization, such as social and community service;

Providing to young people after they leave juvenile detention support services that ensure their full rehabilitation and reintegration into society;

Recognizes that leisure time is an important aspect of youth well-being and health as well as of crime and violence prevention, and in this regard calls upon Member States to protect the right of all young people, particularly girls and young women, to rest and leisure and to enhance opportunities for the exercise of this right in a positive way;

Also recognizes that the implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth and the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, require the full and effective participation of young people and youth-led organizations, and therefore encourages Member States to ensure the full and effective participation of youth in the life of society and in decision-making processes by:

Creating effective channels of cooperation and information exchange among young people, their national Governments and other decision makers;

Encouraging and promoting youth-led organizations and the important role they play in supporting young people’s civic engagement, capacity-building and providing non-formal education through financial and technical support and promotion of their activities;

Supporting, including through State and local governments, the establishment and functioning of independent national youth councils or equivalent bodies;

Strengthening the participation and inclusion of young persons with disabilities in decision-making processes on an equal basis with others;

Providing young people who are disconnected or socially and economically excluded with opportunities to participate in decision-making processes to ensure their full involvement in society;

Calls upon Member States to consider using the goals and targets proposed in the reports of the Secretary-General at the national level as a means of facilitating the monitoring of progress towards the implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth;

Requests the Secretary-General to intensify efforts to further develop and propose a set of possible indicators linked to the World Programme of Action for Youth and the proposed goals and targets, in order to assist States in assessing the situation of youth, with a view to allowing it to be considered by the Commission for Social Development and by the Statistical Commission at the earliest opportunity;

Recognizes the positive contribution that youth representatives make to the General Assembly and other United Nations bodies and their role in serving as an important channel of communication between young people and the United Nations, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to support adequately the United Nations Programme on Youth of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat so that it can continue to facilitate their effective participation in meetings;

Urges Member States to consider including youth representatives in their delegations at all relevant discussions in the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and its functional commissions and 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 that ensures that they have a suitable mandate to represent young people in their countries;

Recognizes the need for a greater geographical balance of youth representation, and encourages Member States and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to contribute to the United Nations Youth Fund in order to facilitate the participation of youth representatives from developing countries;

Welcomes the recent increased collaboration among United Nations entities in the area of youth development, and calls upon the United Nations Programme on Youth to continue to act as the focal point within the United Nations system for promoting further collaboration.

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Policies and Programmes Involving Youth

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