Policies and programmes involving youth : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly

The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolutions 32/135 of 16 December 1977 and 36/17 of 9 November 1981, by which it adopted guidelines for the improvement of the channels of communication between the United Nations and youth and youth organizations, and its other relevant resolutions,

Recalling also its resolution 40/14 entitled "International Youth Year: Participation, Development, Peace", adopted on 18 November 1985 by the General Assembly acting as the United Nations World Conference for the International Youth Year, by which the guidelines for further planning and suitable follow-up in the field of youth were endorsed, and its other relevant resolutions,

Recalling further its resolution 44/59 of 8 December 1989,

Noting that the year 1995 will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Charter of the United Nations and the tenth anniversary of International Youth Year,

Recognizing that, in implementing the guidelines, priority should be given to the enjoyment by youth of human rights, including the right to education and to work, and to the resolution of other urgent problems faced by young people in the present-day world, such as hunger, drug abuse, diseases, including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, and the deterioration of the environment,

Mindful of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which entered into force on 2 September 1990, the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children and the Plan of Action for Implementing the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children in the 1990s, adopted by the World Summit for Children on 30 September 1990, and the International Year of the Family proclaimed by the General Assembly in its resolution 44/82 of 8 December 1989,

1.         Calls upon all States, all United Nations bodies, in particular the Economic and Social Council through the Commission for Social Development, the specialized agencies and the intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations concerned, in particular youth organizations, to continue to exert all possible efforts for the implementation of the guidelines for further planning and suitable follow-up in the field of youth;

2.         Requests the Secretary-General to continue to promote and monitor, by using the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs of the Secretariat as a focal point, the inclusion of youth-related projects and activities in the programmes of United Nations bodies and specialized agencies, specifically on such themes as communication, health, malnutrition, poverty, housing, culture, youth employment, illiteracy, juvenile delinquency, education, leisure-time activities, drug abuse and the environment;

3.         Calls upon Member States to enable young people to obtain a modern education on such subjects as environmental issues;

4.         Decides to devote a plenary meeting at its fiftieth session to youth questions, as 1995 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Charter of the United Nations and the tenth anniversary of International Youth Year;

5.         Calls upon the United Nations Postal Administration to produce commemorative United Nations stamps in 1995 to mark the tenth anniversary of International Youth Year;

6.         Emphasizes the need for a review and appraisal of the progress achieved and obstacles encountered in the implementation of the guidelines and, on the basis of the evaluation, for preparation of a global youth programme of action towards the year 2000 and beyond, with a target orientation and within a specific time-frame;

7.         Invites all Member States to consider preparing a national plan of action based on an analytical national evaluation of the situation and needs of youth;

8.         Calls again upon Member States, United Nations bodies, the specialized agencies and other governmental and intergovernmental organizations to implement fully the guidelines for the improvement of the channels of communication between the United Nations and youth and youth organizations, adopted by the General Assembly in its resolutions 32/135 and 36/17;

9.         Requests the regional commissions, as appropriate, together with regional youth and youth-serving organizations, to undertake a comprehensive review of progress achieved and obstacles encountered in the regions since 1985 and to propose draft regional youth programmes of action towards the year 2000 and beyond;

10.       Requests the Secretary-General to prepare a draft world youth programme of action towards the year 2000 and beyond in accordance with proposals to be submitted by Member States, the United Nations and non-governmental youth organizations and in consultation with the specialized agencies and other organizations of the United Nations system and the relevant intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its forty-sixth session;

11.       Calls upon youth mechanisms that have been set up by youth and youth organizations at the national, regional and international levels to continue to act as channels of communication between the United Nations system and youth and youth organizations and, especially, to contribute to the preparations for the tenth anniversary of International Youth Year and to the formulation of a world youth programme of action towards the year 2000 and beyond;

12.       Again invites Governments to include youth representatives in their national delegations to the General Assembly and other relevant United Nations meetings, thus enhancing and strengthening the channels of communication through the discussion of youth-related issues, with a view to finding solutions to the problems confronting youth in the contemporary world;

13.       Invites Governments and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to contribute to the United Nations Youth Fund, in order to enable it to continue its mandated role and to contribute effectively to the needs of developing countries in the field of youth;

14.       Decides to consider the item entitled "Policies and programmes involving youth" at its forty-sixth session on the basis of a report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of the present resolution.