International Youth Day

The creation of an International Youth Day was proposed in 1991 by young people gathered in Viena for the very first session of the World Youth Forum of the UN System. The Forum recommended that an International Youth Day be declared, especially for fund-raising and promotional purposes, to support the United Nations Youth Fund in partnership with youth organizations.

The international day of youth was founded in 1999 by the General meeting of the United Nations. The objective of this day is to encourage governmental programs centered on education, employment, hunger and poverty, health, environment, drug abuse, juvenile delinquency and violence. Most of the young people participating in these programs live in developing countries and are between 15 and 24 years old.

The General Assembly on 17 December 1999 (resolution 54/120) endorsed the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth (Lisbon, 8-12 August 1998) that 12 August be declared International Youth Day. It recommended that public information activities be organized to support the Day as a way to promote better awareness of the World Programme of Action for Youth to the year 2000 and beyond, adopted by the Assembly in 1995 (resolution 50/81).

The theme for this year's commemoration of the International Youth Day, on 12 August, is related to youth employment and highlights the Secretary-General's Youth Employment Network (YEN) and the General Assembly resolution on promoting youth employment adopted at its 57th session in 2002.

For more information on the International Youth Day, please click here.

For more information on the Youth at the United Nations, click here.