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Adolescents and Young People
Ensuring the health and well-being of the world’s
adolescents and young people, equipping them with
life skills, and creating educational and employment
opportunities for them is a fundamental necessity in
meeting the development challenges of the 21st century.
The ICPD gave unprecedented attention to adolescents’
diverse needs with regard to reproductive
health, as both a human rights priority and a
practical necessity.
Since 1994 and especially in the past few years,
countries have made significant progress in addressing
the often-sensitive issues of adolescent reproductive
health, including needs for information, education and
services that will enable young people to prevent
unwanted pregnancy and infection. Increasingly, these
efforts are being undertaken as part of a wider, holistic
approach that aims to reach young people in diverse
situations and equip them to shape their own future.
But enormous challenges remain. One person in
five—1.3 billion in all—is an adolescent (defined as
ages 10-19), part of the largest youth generation in history.
Half are poor, and one fourth live on less than
$1 per day. Many are sexually active, often without
the power, knowledge or means to protect themselves,
or the opportunity to direct their energies to more
productive areas of their lives.
Young people (15-24) account for half of all new
HIV infections, 2.5 million each year, with girls and
young women especially at risk. Despite a trend towards
later marriage in much of the world, millions of girls
are still expected to marry and begin child-bearing in
their teens, often before their bodies are ready.
ADOLESCENTS AND THE MDGs. Enabling youth to
delay pregnancy is not only a health and human
rights imperative; it is also a key to slowing the continuing momentum of population growth and
allowing developing countries to reap the economic
benefits that lower fertility can bring, and should be
given priority in the global effort to eradicate poverty
and achieve the Millennium Development Goals
(see Chapter 2).
Investing in young people’s health, education
and skills development, and allowing girls to stay in
school and marry later, are also essential to meeting
the MDGs related to gender equality, child mortality,
maternal health and HIV/AIDS.
The ICPD addressed adolescent reproductive health
issues including unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortion
and STIs, including HIV/AIDS, through the promotion
of responsible and healthy reproductive and sexual
behaviour, including voluntary abstinence, and the
provision of appropriate services and counselling
specifically suited for that age group. It also aimed
to substantially reduce all adolescent pregnancies.1
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| ADOLESCENTS’ REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH NEEDS |
The reproductive health needs of adolescents as a group have been largely ignored to date by existing
reproductive health services. The response of societies to the reproductive health needs of adolescents should be based on information that helps them attain a level of maturity required to make responsible decisions. In particular, information and services should be made available to adolescents to help them understand their sexuality and protect them from unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and subsequent risk of infertility. This should be combined with the education of young men to respect women’s self-determination and to share responsibility with women in matters of sexuality and reproduction. |
| —from ICPD Programme of Action, para. 7.41. |
The Programme of Action recognized that poor educational
and economic opportunities, gender-based
violence, early pregnancy and sexual exploitation
increase the vulnerability of adolescents, especially
girls, to reproductive health risks. It urged governments
and the international community to ensure
that all adolescents have access to age-appropriate
reproductive health information, education, and
services, respecting their right to privacy and confidentiality
and ensuring that health provider attitudes
or other barriers (laws, regulations, or social customs)
do not restrict that access. It also called for parents
and families, communities, religious institutions,
schools, the mass media and peer groups to be involved
in meeting adolescents’ reproductive health needs.(2)
NEW BENCHMARKS. The 1999 review of ICPD implementation
found that young people’s reproductive
rights and health needs still remained largely neglected,
and were an increasing concern in the face of rising
HIV infection rates.(3) New targets were set, including
a 25 per cent reduction in HIV prevalence among
those aged 15-24, by 2005 in the most-affected countries
and by 2010 globally. It was also agreed that the
vast majority of those aged 15 to 24 (90 per cent by
2005 and 95 per cent by 2010) should have access to
the information, education and services necessary to
develop the life skills required to reduce their vulnerability
to HIV infection.(4)
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