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UNICEF says young people have key development role

"Participation by young people in policy formation at all levels is their right," Ms. Bellamy added. "The world needs to move rapidly from seeing young people as passive recipients of welfare to understanding their key role as agents of positive change."

Ms. Bellamy's remarks came as 400 young representatives at the World Youth Forum in Braga (convened by Portugal and the United Nations) issued urgent recommendations to the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth, now meeting in Lisbon. The proposals would place youth participation and human rights at the centre of governments' national development agendas.

"If governments can accept our recommendations with the same enthusiasm and vigour that the young people in Braga demonstrated in putting them together, that would be a real step forward," said Tyrone Burkmire, a Forum delegate from Grenada.

Ms. Bellamy urged the Lisbon meeting to revisit plans of action that governments pledged to support during the various UN-sponsored conferences in Beijing, Cairo, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo. "All of these plans of action give young people a prominent place in the global development agenda," she said.

She also called for more youth involvement in United Nations fora. "Despite the many UN resolutions on youth, only four of the 185 UN member states -- Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Austria -- now send young delegates to General Assembly sessions. We look forward to the day when all nations have youth delegates."

Prior to the Forum in Braga, UNICEF, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNAIDS sponsored a two-day workshop in which young people identified discrimination by gender and race, along with prejudices against those with disabilities and those affected by HIV/AIDS, as key issues. The workshop concluded that discrimination can only be overcome when people personally recognize their own prejudices. More importantly, participants concluded that adults -- including older youth -- should assume leading roles in creating environments of respect and tolerance that can lead to change.

Exclusion of youth from participation in society has serious implications for their health and well being, Ms.Bellamy said. "Modern pandemics have been exacerbated by a failure to adequately involve young people in effective prevention efforts. Transmission of HIV/AIDS, substance abuse and youth violence are such huge problems -- and impact youth so directly -- that only with their active involvement can governments begin to find workable solutions."

Gender discrimination underlies the most serious problems facing adolescents, Ms. Bellamy said, and countering its negative impact is central to UNICEF's present and future agenda.

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