ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH

Related Resources:  » Issues at a Glance—Youth's Reproductive Health: Key to Achieving the Millennium Development Goals at the Country Level  » Issues at a Glance—Youth's Reproductive Health Targets Must Be Included in the Millennium Declaration  » The Facts—The Sexual and Reproductive Health of Youth: A Global Snapshot  » The Facts—Youth and the Global HIV/AIDS Pandemic

Groups Urge UN to Improve Young People's Reproductive Health

1 Billion Young People's Lives at the Hands of the General Assembly

New York, NY—As the United Nations World Summit comes to a close, Advocates for Youth and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS) urge member nations to prioritize improving the sexual and reproductive health of the world's one billion young people in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

"Empowering young people and protecting their health should be the foremost concern for the UN General Assembly," said William Smith, vice president for public policy at SIECUS. "We urge the UN to refocus their efforts on ensuring that all young people have access to critical sexual health information and services to improve their lives and futures," Smith continued.

This generation of young people has not known a world without AIDS. Every minute, five young people worldwide become infected with HIV—over 7,000 new infections every day. In fact, young people ages 15-24 account for half of all the new cases of HIV worldwide. The outcome document calls on governments to implement measures to "increase the capacities of adults and adolescents to protect themselves from the risk of HIV infection."

Advocates for Youth and SIECUS are pleased that the U.N. General Assembly reaffirmed the target of reaching universal access to reproductive health by 2015 in the outcome document of the World Summit. However, the document overlooks the fact that unless greater efforts are made, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the other aims of the Millennium Declaration agreed to in 2000 will not be met. For example, the General Assembly failed to recognize that many governments have not been successful in achieving the very first goal of getting as many girls into school as boys by 2005.

"The reproductive choices of this generation of young people will largely determine the quality of life on this planet for decades to come," said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth.

Youth's reproductive health and, in fact, young people themselves are the key to meeting and sustaining the MDGs. Translating the goals and targets set out in the Millennium Declaration into reality will be crucial to improving the livelihoods of young people. It remains to be seen, however, if the political will is there to carry these goals forward and turn them into meaningful policies, programs, and services to improve young people's lives.

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Advocates for Youth is a national, nonprofit organization that creates programs and supports policies that help young people make safe, responsible decisions about their sexual and reproductive health.

SIECUS advocates for the right of all people to accurate information, comprehensive education about sexuality, and sexual health services, and works to create a world that ensures social justice and sexual rights.

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