A/RES/74/121
Policies and programmes involving youth
12. Calls upon Member States to accelerate efforts to scale up scientifically
accurate age-appropriate comprehensive education, relevant to cultural contexts, that
provides adolescent girls and boys and young women and men, in and out of school,
consistent with their evolving capacities, with information on sexual and reproductive
health, gender equality and the empowerment of women, human rights, physical,
psychological and pubertal development, and power in relationships between women
and men, to enable them to build self-esteem and informed decision-making,
communication and risk reduction skills and to develop respectful relationships, in
full partnership with young persons, parents, legal guardians, caregivers, educators
and health-care providers;
13. Emphasizes that addressing the specific needs of young people in the
response to HIV and AIDS is a key element in efforts to achieve an AIDS -free
generation, and urges Member States to develop accessible, available and affordable
primary health-care services of high quality, including sexual and reproductive health
care, as well as education programmes, including those related to sexually transmitted
infections, including HIV and AIDS, and to strengthen efforts in this regard, including
by ensuring the active involvement of young people living with or affected by HIV in
the response;
14. Also emphasizes the right to education, recognizes that investment in
universal, quality and inclusive education and training is the most important policy
investment that States can make to ensure the immediate and long-term development
of youth, and reiterates that access to inclusive, equitable and quality formal and
non-formal education, at all levels, including, as appropriate, catch -up and literacy
education, including in information and communications technologies for those who
did not receive formal education, information and communications technologies and
volunteerism are important factors that enable young people to acquire the relevant
skills and to build their capacities, including for employability and entrepreneurial
development, and to gain decent and productive work, and calls upon Member States
to take the actions necessary to ensure that young people, including pregnant
adolescents and young mothers, have access to such services and opportunities, which
will allow them to be drivers of sustainable development;
15. Recognizes the importance of a deep connection between youth and their
respective cultural heritage and background as a tool for the establishment of positive
relations based on the respect for cultural diversity, leading to peaceful integration
also through artistic, cultural and sports initiatives;
16. Calls upon Member States to accelerate their efforts to close the digital
divide and promote innovation among youth by ensuring that information and
communications technologies are fully and appropriately integrated into education
and training at all levels, including in the development of curricula, teacher training
and institutional administration and management, and in support of the concept of
lifelong learning;
17. Urges Member States to intensify efforts to address the high rates of youth
unemployment, underemployment, vulnerable employment, informal employment
and young people not in employment, education or training by developing and
implementing targeted and integrated local and national youth employment policies
for inclusive, sustainable and innovative job creation, improved employability, skills
development and vocational training to facilitate the tran sition from school to work,
and improving synergies between the education and employment sectors to increase
the prospects for integrating youth into the sustainable labour market, and through
increased innovation and entrepreneurship, including the develo pment of networks of
young entrepreneurs at the local, national, regional and global levels that foster
knowledge among young people about their rights and responsibilities in society, and
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