[Link]
org/en/youth/about-human-rights-youth
Read the text below and compile a list of fundamental human rights of youth.
What are the human rights of youth?
Youth is a period of transition from dependence to independence and autonomy. The
transition occurs at different times in relation to different rights, for example with
regards to education, employment, and sexual and reproductive health, and among
others depends on the socioeconomic context.
Young people face discrimination and obstacles to the enjoyment of their rights by
virtue of their age, limiting their potential. The human rights of youth therefore refer
to the full enjoyment of fundamental rights and freedoms by young people. Promoting
these rights entails addressing the specific challenges and barriers faced.
What challenges and discrimination do young people face?
Pursuant to Human Rights Council Resolution 35/14, the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights published a report on youth and human rights
(A/HRC/39/33). The report documented the discrimination and some of the challenges
for young people in accessing civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights.
Examples include:
Participation: Youth are under-represented in political institutions, with less
than 2% of parliamentarians worldwide aged under 30. Moreover, the age of
candidacy for national parliaments, and especially for higher office, is not always
aligned with the minimum voting age.
School to work transition: Young people worldwide are three times more likely
than adults to be unemployed. Where youth are employed, they often face
precarious working conditions (e.g. zero-hour contracts) and thus lack quality
jobs and access to social protection. Additionally, working poverty
disproportionately affects youth, with 145 million young workers living in
poverty. In some cases, youth poverty is linked to sub-minimum youth wages
which go against the principle of equal pay for work of equal value.
Access to health, including Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: In
some countries, parental notification is required for young people to access sexual
and reproductive health services, such as contraceptive goods and services.
Where information on sexual and reproductive health is not provided,
adolescents' ability to take measures to prevent unwanted pregnancy or sexually
transmitted infections is hindered; adolescent girls and young women aged 15-19
account for 11% of all births.
Conscientious objection to military service: Despite a growing body of
international jurisprudence and recommendations from the international human
rights system, some States do not recognize or fully implement the right to
conscientious objection to military service in practice.
Youth in vulnerable situations: Young migrants including asylum seekers and
refugees, young people in conflict with the law and youth with disabilities face
additional challenges due to their specific situation. Age is one characteristic that
often intersects with, adds to and multiplies discrimination based on other
grounds, thus preventing many young people from enjoying equal opportunities
and substantive equality.
What can member states do?
In its 2018 report on youth and human rights (A/HRC/39/33), OHCHR recommended
to the Human Rights Council that it consider measures that would most effectively
advance the rights of young people at the international level, with options including:
1. Mainstreaming the human rights of youth through existing mechanisms, policies
and programmes;
2. Creating a special procedure mandate under the auspices of the Council;
3. Considering the possibility of an international instrument;
4. Introducing a mechanism that would ensure permanent, structured youth
participation in the Council's work, such as an annual youth forum as an ongoing
component of the Council.
Member States can also take measures at the national level to ensure the protection and
realization of young people's rights, while involving youth organisations or youth-led
structures in the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies,
programmes or strategies affecting young people's rights, and in decision-making more
broadly. Measures may include, for example:
Participation: Enacting or amending legislation to align the minimum voting age and
the minimum age of candidacy to run for office. More broadly, States should guarantee
an enabling and safe environment for meaningful youth participation, which fully
respects the right to freedom of opinion and expression, including the right to access
information, and the rights of freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.
Detailed recommendations on enhancing participation are available in the Guidelines
for States on the effective implementation of the right to participate in public affairs
and the report of the first session of the UN Forum on Human Rights, Democracy and
the Rule of Law, which focused on the role of youth in public decision-making.
Employment & social protection: Ensuring access to social protection for all workers,
regardless of form of employment, and abolishing sub-minimum youth wages where
they exist. Detailed recommendations are available in the OHCHR report on youth and
the right to work (A/HRC/40/31).
Access to health: Introducing scientifically based and age-appropriate comprehensive
sexuality education into curricula at all levels, and ensuring access to sexual and
reproductive health services without parental consent.
Conscientious objection: Providing a non-punitive and non-discriminatory alternative
service for conscientious objectors, and to refrain from prosecuting them.
In addition to the above, Member States are encouraged to enact legislation prohibiting
discrimination on the grounds of age in all areas of life, and to provide straightforward,
accessible mechanisms for reporting discrimination and seeking redress.
1. Transcribe the following words. Practise their pronunciation.
Autonomy; by virtue of; pursuant to; candidacy; precarious; adolescents;
jurisprudence; conscientious; under the auspices; poverty; migrants; legislation;
prohibit.
2. Find the equivalents to the following words and collocations.
Стикатися з перешкодами; внаслідок чогось, завдяки; користуватися
правами; стосовно чогось; небезпечні умови праці; віком до 30 років;
організації, очолювані молоддю; під егідою; балотуватися на посаду;
повністю виконувати; біженці; шукачі притулку; відмова від військової
служби з мотивів особистих переконань; право на мирне зібрання;
утриматись від; прийняти законодавство; домагатися відшкодування.
3. Make up a plan for the text.
4. Write a summary.
5. Get ready to dwell on the topic ‘Fundamental human rights of youth’.
