Background

This year, the world commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) – a miraculous text adopted by the United Nations. The Human Rights 75 initiative, led by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recalls the consensus imagined by the UDHR, looks to the future, and seeks to bolster the human rights ecosystem built over the past decades.

The interconnecting challenges facing the world, including inequalities, conflicts, insecurity, as well as climate change, have a significant impact on the human rights of youth. At the same time, young people are significantly engaged on several of these issues, fighting for their human rights and the future of the planet.

It is essential that the Human Rights 75 initiative engage youth in a meaningful way to ensure that their views, experiences, and recommendations inform the discussion concerning their rights and their future. For that reason, engagement of youth is identified as a key component of the initiative. To ensure such engagement, OHCHR has established a Youth Advisory Group (YAG) that is involved in the design, implementation, and follow-up of Human Rights 75 initiative, including the organization of a Global Youth Consultation and development of a Human Rights 75 Youth Declaration, which will be presented at the High-level event in December.

Objectives

OHCHR is soliciting views from youth-led and youth-focused organizations and institutions on the present and future of human rights, which, together with the outcomes of the Global Youth Consultation, will inform the development of the Human Rights 75 Youth Declaration.

Key questions and types of input/comments sought

Youth-led and youth-focused organizations and institutions are asked to provide their views on the following questions:

1. What are the challenges the world is facing now, how they will affect the future of human rights, and what future do you want for human rights?
2. What are your recommendations to decision and policymakers, including governments, civil society, international organizations, the United Nations, and others, to advance human rights in the future?
3. What commitments and actions can young people take towards advancing human rights in the future?

How inputs will be used

As a general rule, submissions will be made available on OHCHR website. Please indicate if you do not wish OHCHR to make your submissions available on the website.