At the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994, governments agreed to meet the special needs of adolescents and youth, especially young women, for access to education, health, counselling and high-quality reproductive health services. This promise was kept for some, but not for all, UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem said in a statement for International Youth Day.
The Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, she added, is a unique opportunity to recommit to realizing the ICPD vision of a world where everyone – including young people — has access to sexual and reproductive health information and services.
Young people will be front and centre at the Summit, sharing their hopes and perspectives and contributing their ideas, their leadership, their energy and creativity under the banner of UNFPA's new youth strategy: My Body, My Life, My World.
To commemorate International Youth Day, UNFPA is highlighting the voices of 8 young people from around the world. Together, their experiences demonstrate some of the connections between their rights, their bodies, their lives and our world.
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