UNESCO Director General sent a message to the public on International Youth Day

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay sent a message to the public on the occasion of the August 12 - International Youth Day.

The theme for International Youth Day 2018 is "Safe Spaces for Youth".

Audrey Azoulay’s message mentions that youth is a decisive phase in personal development. Ensuring "safe spaces" for young people means creating the conditions for harmonious personal development, providing a climate of confidence in which they may freely express their potential and strengthen their self-esteem. These spaces are, in a broad sense, all locations and all settings where young people interact with each other. First, they are places of learning and training such as schools, colleges and universities. They are also the meeting spaces dedicated to leisure and sports; public and political arenas, in which young people should be able to experience freely their citizenship; and urban spaces, which must provide a quality environment. Finally, they include digital virtual spaces and social networks, into which young people are drawn very early on and become particularly active.

Within all these spaces, it is necessary to ensure the principle of inclusion, beyond differences of gender, culture, language and religion, and to guarantee respect for freedom of expression and the dignity of each and every individual. It is essential to drive out discrimination, harassment and all forms of violence, whether overt or insidious, and help to prevent attempts at indoctrination.

On International Youth Day, Director-General called on civil society stakeholders, policymakers and entrepreneurs to imagine new forms of collaboration that were able to harness the vast potential of youth and enable it to express all within it that was unique and promising.