Delegate: Ms. Arslandoğan
14. Ms. Arslandoğan (Turkey), speaking on agenda item 98 as a youth representative of Turkey, said that almost half the population of her country was under the age of 18; society should give more responsibilities to the young so that they could contribute more to the development of their societies. Education within the family and in society was becoming more and more important for their future.
15. After noting the definition of a child contained in article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, she said that young persons were human beings involved in a society, who read, listened to others, spoke, thought, more importantly, reacted. In her view youth was not necessarily measured by age but rather by intellectual activities. Any social development strategy aimed at youth should therefore take into consideration factors such as the family, peers, school environment, and level of education.
16. When devising global social development strategies, it should be borne in mind that every country had its own cultural, social and ethical values, and that tolerance had to be exercised and diversity respected. As stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone was entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in the Declaration could be fully realized. The young people of the day, who were the leaders of the future, wanted nothing more than to shoulder their [*4*] responsibility for a more peaceful, democratic, tolerant and prosperous world.
UN Doc.: A/C.3/57/SR.10
Cite as:
UN Doc.: A/C.3/57/SR.10, 8 October 2002, p. 3-4, Youth Delegate Search: https://youthdelegatesearch.org/turkey-2002/, doi: 10.17176/20221018-195030-0.