Delegates: Mr. Peter Mladenov (22 years), Ms. Milena Andreeva (26 years)
30. Mr. Mladenov (Bulgaria), speaking as a youth delegate, said that education should not be reduced to economics but should be seen as a vehicle for teaching young people life skills that would help them become responsible members of society. A life skills curriculum also provided an excellent context for improving access to gender-sensitive comprehensive sexuality education, which had a positive impact on sexual decisions and reproductive health and helped young people develop positive attitudes and moral values. He urged Governments to establish programmes and policies to ensure open and free access to comprehensive sexual education for all youth.
31. Ms. Andreeva (Bulgaria), speaking as a youth delegate, said that in a time of poverty, intolerance and high youth unemployment, many young people had lost their sense of belonging to nations or communities and their trust in the effectiveness of Governments. More than ever, education should focus on building social values like humanism, responsibility, honesty and tolerance, in order to create a culture of peace and strengthen respect for one’s compatriots and national institutions, and should promote attitudes based ondialogue, consensus-building and mutual respect.
32. Young people could play key roles as agents of peacebuilding and positive social change. She and her fellow delegate strongly urged the United Nations system and civil society organizations to provide a collaborative framework to engage, empower and educate youth in building peace, solving problems and participating fully in public life. They also urged the United Nations to encourage the promotion of social values in school and by other means, such as social media. They recommended that the United Nations System-wide Action Plan on Youth should be implemented in the light of the Declaration on a Culture of Peace. Lastly, they supported the establishment of a United Nations permanent forum on youth issues to monitor implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth and the System-wide Action Plan on Youth.
UN Doc.: A/C.3/68/SR.4
Cite as:
UN Doc.: A/C.3/68/SR.4, 4 November 2013, p. 6, Youth Delegate Search: https://youthdelegatesearch.org/bulgaria-2013/, doi: 10.17176/20221018-193622-0.