TASHKENT, August 14. /“Dunyo” IA/. On August 12-13, at the initiative of the President of Uzbekistan, the country hosted a World Conference on Youth Rights “Involving Youth in Global Action”, reports “Dunyo” IA correspondent.

The event was attended by over 500 representatives from 30 countries.

The event was organized by the National Center for Human Rights in cooperation with the Agency for Youth Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the UN, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the UN Country Team in Uzbekistan, the OSCE, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan and the F. Ebert Foundation.

The conference was opened by the First Vice-Speaker of Uzbekistan Parliament, Director of the National Center for Human Rights Akmal Saidov. The Chairperson of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis Tanzila Narbayeva addressed the event. Acting UN Resident Coordinator in Uzbekistan Yu Yu read out a message from United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, UN Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth Affairs Jayathma Wickramanayake, OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid, Secretary General of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly Mohammad Reza Majidi, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Margareta Cederfelt, Chairman of the Executive Committee – Executive Secretary of the CIS Sergey Lebedev and other heads of international structures addressed the event. The initiative of Uzbekistan in promoting the interests of youth in the world, as well as the fact that youth issues are one of the most important areas of state policy and international cooperation was noted.

The outcome of the two-day event was the Tashkent Youth Declaration – a youth message reflecting the results of the discussions at three plenary and three parallel sessions and containing recommendations and calls for action by young people. In the direction of “Pandemic and Youth”, it was noted that “the pandemic not only showed the existing weaknesses and imbalances in the education, healthcare, employment systems, but also gave impetus to the intensification of efforts to reform and strengthen them”.

Noting the role of youth in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, the Tashkent Youth Declaration emphasizes that, unfortunately, youth “are still largely excluded from the formal decision-making and political participation process”. In this regard, participants called for the creation of a post of youth SDG ambassadors, whose tasks will include the preparation of annual reports on the measures taken to achieve the SDGs and the wide public awareness of the global development goals.

The Tashkent Youth Declaration calls for assistance in the establishment of youth parliaments, and where they already exist, to strengthen them, to establish the World Association of Youth Parliaments. It is important to adopt national youth strategies, to create youth councils at government bodies, national human rights institutions to promote and support the rights of young people, taking into account the principles “Nothing about us without us” and “Do not leave anyone aside”.

The Tashkent Youth Declaration also contains provisions aimed at creating the necessary conditions in the countries of the world for youth to have access to high-quality healthcare, education, as well as aimed at the contribution of youth to the digital economy, the development and implementation of mechanisms to protect their rights.

The participants, confirming the important role of international youth cooperation and joint programs, supported the initiatives of Uzbekistan to adopt a Convention on the Rights of Youth, create a Youth Council of Central and South Asia, and hold a Central Asian Youth Forum.

Source: “Dunyo” IA