The following joint letter was submitted by women's rights organizations to the High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. 

Statement of a coalition of young advocates and activists related to young people with respect to this year’s theme of migration (Delivered on April 24, 2013).

A Guide to the 2012 Commission on Population and Development Youth Resolution

Nearly one third of the world’s population right now is under the age of 24. Crucial decisions about our futures and the future of our planet are happening right now, and we must be a part of that process. It is vital that our human rights are respected, protected, and fulfilled. We demand access to education, health, employment, and equality. We call for recognition of our sexual and reproductive rights, and need all the information, skills and services to make free, responsible, and informed decisions. We welcome and applaud world governments that agreed, at the 2012 United Nations Commission on Population and Development (CPD), to uphold these rights. This document, known as the Youth Resolution, is an historic agreement that we can use at the national, regional, and international levels to hold our governments accountable and ensure the sexual and reproductive rights and health of young people, especially women and girls.

How to Use This Tool
The Youth Resolution itself is a dense document, so we boiled down its essence to a list of twelve demands that we can use to attain a more just future for ourselves and our peers.

The Tool exists in three formats and can be used in three different ways:

• Online: We made a slideshow of the ten demands that you can embed on your website and link to in social media, so we can all encourage young people to learn about their rights.
• In presentations and trainings: Need a way to start off your training about youth rights and advocacy? We made a powerpoint of the ten demands so you can easily use it in your trainings as an overview of the Youth Resolution.
• As a handout: If you want to print out the tool as a handout in trainings, or to give away at other events you’re organizing, we made a simple PDF so you can do that.

In the tool, there are citations that look like this: “OP4” - that means the full information is found in operative paragraph number four.

The Tool is available in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. If there are other languages you’d like to see it in and you can get someone to translate the text, get in touch with communications@iwhc.org and we’ll work together!

Where to Find the Full Resolution
The Tool is our interpretation of the CPD Youth Resolution – there’s a lot more to it than just these ten points, and there is a lot more language in it that you can use in your advocacy. The full text of the Resolution is on the UN’s CPD website, under Agenda Item 8.

Download

• English - Online slideshow - PowerPoint - PDF handout
• French - En ligne diaporama - PowerPoint - PDF document
• Spanish - Línea de diapositivas - PowerPoint ...

Reprolatina, Innovative Solutions in Sexual and Reproductive Health, is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization founded in 1999 and located in Campinas, State of São Paulo in Brazil. It carries out strategic and innovative actions to help enhance the quality of sexual and reproductive health of women and men (adolescents, young people, and adults) in disadvantaged populations in Latin America.

Universal access to reproductive health is vital to the effective implementation of population, health and development policies and to the success of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This IWHC brief describes in practical terms the justification for and components of the essential policy and program package. 

Today’s generation of adolescents is the largest ever - there are 1.2 billion people between the ages of 10 and 19 alive today. To protect their health and rights, young people need evidence-based, accurate information about their sexual and reproductive health, as well as support and skills to feel comfortable and confident about their bodies and their sexuality. While adolescence is a time for growth and learning, often young people confront multiple threats to their health and their lives such as violence and sexual coercion, unintended pregnancies, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV. Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) provides young people with the necessary skills and information to make free and informed decisions about their health, and enjoy safe and satisfying relationships.

Click here to download the 8 page PDF in English.

To enjoy safe and satisfying sexual lives, young people must be able to exercise their basic human rights. A rights- based approach to comprehensive sexuality education not only helps young people acquire accurate information about their bodies and sex, but also approaches sexuality holistically; equipping young people with the skills they need to forge emotionally and socially healthy relationships.

It’s All One is a gorgeous two book collection of guidelines and activities that are examples of comprehensive sexuality education. For this work, IWHC collaborated with the International Planned Parenthood Foundation, International Planned Parenthood Foundation Western Hemisphere, Mexfam, the Population Council, and our partners CREA and the Girls Power Initiative.

You can download each volume below as a PDF, or request a hard copy.

Book 1: GUIDELINES
Curriculum content that
places gender issues and
human rights at the heart
of sex and HIV education.
Download PDF here.

Book 2: ACTIVITIES
54 activities that engage
young people and foster
critical thinking skills.
Download PDF here.

 

 

 

>>Available in PDF

Summary: Statement of the NGO Global Meeting at the World Youth Conference 2010. 208 representatives of youth‐led NGOs from 153 countries, gathered in Mexico for the World Youth Conference in August 2010 to advise decision‐makers on priorities for the global youth development agenda, and hold them accountable to the promises established in the Millennium Declaration and other international agreements. 11 pages in English.

 

Josina Machel delivered this speech at the 4th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in February 2010. Machel is a gender activist and a social entrepreneur and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Women's Health Coalition. The speech is available to download in Word and PDF.

Each year, the International Women's Health Coalition issues the "Top Ten Wins for Women's Health and Rights."