“Sport, with its joys and triumphs, its pains and defeats, its emotions and challenges, is an unrivalled medium for the promotion of education, health, development and peace. I am convinced that sport helps us demonstrate, in our pursuit of the betterment of humanity, that there is more that unites us than divides us.” - Adolf Ogi, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace
New York, 29 –31 October, 2006
We, the delegates of the first ever United Nations Global Youth Leadership Summit, fully acknowledge the importance of youth involvement in the achievement of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We celebrate the variety of countries attending and the work done by all the youth involved in the Regional Youth Leadership Summits. We welcome the new and renewed efforts of all to move forward in the Global Summit by widening our available youth-run and youth-led initiatives. We are determined to see our generation play its part in promoting development and peace to help make a better world. We come together with no distinction based on ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, language, religion, political opinion, nationality, or social background.
We acknowledge that the present model of development is inadequate for the construction of sustainable societies, and thus contributes to the existence of inequality, racism, discrimination, conflict, unemployment, poverty, injustice and corruption.
We believe that the present participation of youth in decision making and governance is inadequate, and we seek to empower youth and youth organizations to work with policy makers and other relevant organizations and for them to work with youth at the local, regional, national and international level.
We consider sports and culture as rights and instruments of empowerment of individuals as integral beings which bring about solidarity, participation, mobilization, peace, and equal relations regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, age, and special needs, among others.
General topics:
We call for the empowerment and capacity building of fellow young leaders to meaningfully and proactively engage in the achievement of the MDG and for a more active representation of youth in the institutions of government, and regional and international organizations and bodies.
We will continue to make the MDGs an integral part of local and national policies by localizing them to suit national realities, priorities and concerns.
We stress the importance of integrating national youth policies developed on a professional and participatory basis with adequate institutions and budget allocation for youth projects that are implementable and achievable.
We commit to educate ourselves in order to decrease ignorance on health issues (HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases) and thus be able to inform our peers on addressing misconceptions, stigma and discrimination. And we encourage local organizations to recognize and stress the importance of environmental issues, and initiate or participate in projects aimed at addressing environmental sustainability.
We strongly call for all countries to promote fair trade rules, and sharing of technology that benefits humanity.
We strive for meaningful international/ regional exchange programs and cooperation to enable youth, particularly young women, to learn and benefit from experiences amongst their peers within their region and in other regions, and see the need to develop more inter- and intra-regional partnerships, particularly among regions where there are tensions.
We urge all our governments to include youth in their national delegations to the UN General Assembly and to the other regional and international meetings and conferences.
We acknowledge that one of the great challenges for the world is to develop solutions for violence in all its manifestations: state, political, institutional, domestic, gender and racial. Violence which results from the implementation of economic policies, or other forms of violence experienced by groups that were historically marginalized and violence in armed conflicts that exist in countries around the globe. In this light we call for youth all over the world to commit to end this plague that degrades our daily lives.
We as young leaders call for an end to corruption and strongly call for transparency in all spheres. We call for all governments to guarantee formal, informal and non-formal education systems with access to quality education on a permanent basis at all levels, with equality and justice for all people, and with no distinction based on age, sex, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.
We will promote health programs to ensure physical, mental and social well-being, by guaranteeing access to potable water, basic sanitation and health services, particularly sexual and reproductive health, respecting rights of freedom, confidentiality, autonomy and integrity of adolescents and young people. We will also promote preventive health policies and efforts to assure comprehensive assistance to people with HIV/AIDS, malaria and other communicable diseases.
We endeavour to extend and develop programs, projects and actions by and for youth leaders using regional approaches, while monitoring and advocating for existing ones.
We seek to empower marginalized youth to be more visible and have a role in the betterment of their communities.
We strongly call for gender equality, especially the autonomy of women in all dimensions of life, respecting as a way to ensure human rights: sexual and reproductive rights, the right to a life free of violence, the right to make decisions concerning their own bodies, the right to employment equality and the right to participate in the economic life of their countries, among other rights.
We urge an end to the continued violations of the rights of young people, especially girls, due to child labour, trafficking and sexual exploitation, and armed conflict and the recruitment of child soldiers.
We recognize the key role that information and communications technology (ICT) can play in the fight against global poverty and as an effective tool in helping to achieve the MDGs. We are further concerned that the benefits of the ICT revolution have not reached many, denying the world’s youth in particular of the opportunities that ICT affords to access knowledge and information.
We encourage governments to implement and adopt environmentally sound policies paying particular attention to global warming and its implications, and endeavour to ensure that there is a mass effort to make the public aware of the seriousness of environmental preservation, as it is surely one of the main keys to achieving the MDGs holistically.
We are all aware that youth leaders face insurmountable challenges in gaining access to and acquiring funding for projects. We therefore request that a Global Youth Leadership Fund (GYLF) be established to act as a funding mechanism whereby youth from all over the world can apply for assistance for their initiatives.
We urge all youth leaders to continue their work at a national and regional level to strengthen existing structures. We expect that credible and relevant projects will be created by youth leaders to address the pertinent issues that plague each region and that each youth leader will be held accountable for the success of his or her projects.
We appreciate all the help we have received from the different agencies and organizations and we affirm that more specific assistance is needed for youth initiatives from governments, the private sector, the UN and all of its agencies.
We ask that the Global Youth Leadership Summit continue as a series and we call for the future organization of regional summits and forums where specific themes are targeted.
-- United Nations, New York, 31 October 2006
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