For seven decades, the UN’s work for democratic values and principles has been carried out by career diplomats and drafters, political experts and peacekeepers. Today, the UN is banking on a different constituency to advance its mission on nearly every front: young people.
In our time, young people hold the key to almost all the challenges facing the UN: from fighting extremism to resolving frozen conflicts and preventing new ones; from giving effect to sustainable development goals to implementing a new universal and meaningful climate agreement; from advancing and defending human rights to ensuring inclusive and participatory governance.
This youth generation is the largest the world has ever known. More than half the global population is under 25 years old. They have opportunities and skills for communicating, acting, networking and influencing that would have been unimaginable to the founders of the UN seven decades ago. The challenges they face are also unprecedented -- from climate change to unemployment and multiple forms of inequalities and exclusion, contributing to the acute migration crisis we are witnessing in several parts of the world. Never before has the transition from youth to adulthood been so burdened by challenges, yet so blessed by opportunities.
It is often observed that young people are increasingly sceptical of the conventional model of democracy. But at the same time, they can and do connect and give voice on issues that matter -- using new media to fight injustice, discrimination, human rights abuses; reviving student activism to give voice to the disempowered; taking individual and collective action for what they believe in -- from sustainable consumer habits to participatory greening of cities, from online petition activism to social entrepreneurship.
Young people not only have the tools to achieve change – they are also the masters of those tools, far more so than their elders. And they have an eloquent voice that resonates deeply with their own generation – from Malala Yousafzai on the universal right to education to Emma Watson on mobilizing men and boys for gender equality.
That is why on the International Day of Democracy in September 2014, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued his message directly to those who will be taking the lead beyond 2015, and who by nature are at a turning point in their own lives. He called on members of the largest young generation in history to confront challenges and consider what they can do to resolve them; to take control of their destiny and translate their dreams into a better future for all; to contribute to building stronger and better democratic societies; to work together, to use their creative thinking, to become architects of a future that leaves no one behind.
To give life to the Secretary-General's vision, the United Nations family is acting on a range of levels:
The Secretary-General himself has made working with and for young people as one of his top priorities, deepening the youth focus of existing programmes on employment, entrepreneurship, political inclusion, citizenship and protection of rights, and education, including on reproductive health. He has appointed the first Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, mandated with the task of bringing the voices of young people to the United Nations family.
The UN General Assembly in March 2015 adopted “Education for Democracy”, a resolution encouraging all UN entities to use education – including school curricula -- to strengthen efforts to promote peace, human rights, democracy, respect for religious and cultural diversity, and justice. The resolution also strongly encourages Member States to integrate education for democracy, along with civics and human rights, into their education standards.
Also in 2015, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution creating a Forum on human rights, democracy and the rule of law, and making the first edition of the Forum in 2016 "Widening the Democratic Space: the Role of Youth in Public Decision-Making".
And the UN Commission for Social Development passed a draft resolution encouraging Member States to develop comprehensive policies and action plans focused on the best interests of youth, particularly the poor and marginalized, and to address all aspects of youth development.
Meanwhile the UN Democracy Fund focused 50 per cent of its new projects in 2015 on young people -- ranging from participation of youth for peaceful collaboration in conflict zones to young people organizing to fight corruption, from building local youth councils to media campaigns for greater youth participation in elections. Securing space for young people to engage is especially important today, a time when space is closing for civil society in a range of countries as an alarming number of Governments have passed restrictions into law.
And as of 2014, the UN Development Programme has adopted its first Youth Strategy, engaging young people as a positive force for transformational change. The first organization-wide strategy that explicitly states UNDP’s commitment to youth, it covers three years and envisages three outcomes:
Increased economic empowerment of youth;
Enhanced youth civic engagement and participation in decision-making and political processes and institutions;
Strengthened youth engagement in resilience building;
To that end, the strategy is guided by a four-pronged approach: capacity development, advocacy and mainstreaming, thought leadership, and national policy.
These efforts by the UN family draw on a shared lesson: Generation after generation, experience has taught us that democracy is strongest where people of all walks and all ages join together in common causes they believe in, drawing on their passion rather than their self-interest, building democratic foundations that go way beyond Government, deepening democratic practices that go way beyond elections.
The UN is committed to acting on that, and ensuring that young people have their democratic say. In the words of the UN Secretary General's Envoy on Youth, Ahmad Alhendawi: "As a young person, you don't need to carry UN badge to work for the UN. You just need to carry its values in your heart."