The Governing Council,
Recalling the Habitat Agenda, specifically those paragraphs relating to youth and participation and most notably among them, those paragraph which stress the importance of partnership and involvement,
Recalling also its resolutions 17/19 of 14 May 1999, 18/3 of 16 February 2001 and 18/8 of 16 February 2001 on partnership with youth and 19/13 of 9 May 2003 on enhancing the engagement of youth in the work of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme,
Acknowledging the importance for children and youth of participating in the shaping of their environment and of freedom of association, bearing in mind applicable human rights instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
Recognizing that young people are key agents for sustainable human settlements development and a vital resource in achieving the development goals related to the United Nations Millennium Declaration
Concerned that social exclusion and poverty limit young people’s involvement and participation in society and hamper them in realizing their potential as agents of social change,
Especially concerned that girls and young women and indigenous young people are particularly at risk of exclusion and discrimination, and that gender inequalities also negatively affect boys and young men,
Recognizing that young people are in an important transitional period of their lives, during which habits and attitudes necessary for good citizenship are established,
Noting the experiences from youth information and resource centres aiming to provide free, impartial and low-threshold information services to all young people,
Convinced that comprehensive policy approaches implemented at national and local levels aimed at increased community participation by young people will make important contributions to accelerating the processes towards sustainable human settlements development,
Noting with appreciation the efforts made in the framework of the Youth Employment Network to increase the employability of young people,
Taking note of the Global Campaign on Urban Governance, which promotes the involvement of young people in local governance, the activities of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in support of vulnerable young people within the framework of the Safer Cities Programme and of the Global Partnership Initiative on Urban Youth Development in Africa,
Taking note also of the draft strategy on enhancing the engagement of youth and youth organizations in the work of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme,
Noting with appreciation that some countries have taken steps to include youth representatives in their delegations,
1. Requests the Executive Director to finalize the Youth Strategy for Enhanced Engagement, in consultation with the Committee of Permanent Representatives, and to develop an action plan for implementation, including an internal evaluation which takes into consideration inputs from youth organizations,
2. Also requests the Executive Director to continue to strengthen and mainstream the work of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in collaboration with other United Nations agencies where necessary, on the engagement of young people in human settlements development and in addressing the problems of young people at risk, especially girls and young women;
3. Encourages the Executive Director and local and central governments to draw on the experiences of other stakeholders working in the area of youth participation and youth information;
4. Invites Governments and other partners to assist in capacity-building by providing resources to young people and their organizations, in order to promote inclusiveness, responsiveness and transparency in local governance and community development, and to enable young people to participate in international, national and local activities related to sustainable environmental and human settlements development;
5. Encourages Governments and youth organizations to support the creation of representative and democratic national youth councils;
6. Also encourages Governments, local authorities and civil society to support and implement enabling strategies in cooperation with relevant youth organizations and youth movements, by among other things, providing young people, especially those living in urban areas, with education and training to enhance their vocational and entrepreneurial skills so that they may secure their own employment;
7. Encourages local and central governments to support forms of cultural and recreational expression to enable young people living in slums and inner cities to play an active role in support of the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration;
8. Recommends the Executive Director to initiate a study, subject to availability of funds, in collaboration with relevant Habitat Agenda partners, on the effects of social and economic conditions related to urbanization on the inter-generational transfer of values conducive to good citizenship and on the manner in which national and local governments can assist this process where necessary;
9. Urges Governments, local authorities, Habitat Agenda partners and youth-serving organizations to establish youth information and resource centres, where feasible, with the aim of reaching all young people, including vulnerable youth groups;
10. Invites local authorities to establish city-to-city partnerships for developing, exchanging and improving best practices on youth participation in decision-making processes, in close partnership with local formal and informal youth movements;
11. Requests the Executive Director, within the framework of the Habitat Agenda, to support local, regional, national and international youth organizations in developing partnerships with other youth organizations in their own regions, and also in other regions;
12. Also requests the Executive Director to facilitate the participation of representative youth organizations and of youth movements at important meetings of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, and to make arrangements for youth caucuses before and during meetings at future sessions of the Governing Council of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme and of the World Urban Forum;
13. Urges Governments to include young people drawn from representative youth organizations and youth movements in their national delegations to sessions of the Governing Council of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme and of the World Urban Forum;
14. Also urges Governments in a position to do so and other partners to provide the United Nations Human Settlements Programme with resources for youth activities, particularly in the least developed countries, through available mechanisms, and to increase development assistance to those countries aimed at youth activities;
15. Requests the Executive Director to report on the implementation of the present resolution, including on the youth strategy and action plan, at the twenty-first session of the Governing Council.