(ANS - Geneva) - From 2 to 27 March 2015 the 28th Ordinary Session of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations is being held in Geneva. As part of an event dedicated to reflection on the process of implementation of the Vienna Declaration on Human Rights of 1993, and its Programme of Action, the International Institute of Mary Help of Christians is presenting a lecture entitled "YOUTH EMPOWERMENT - A Human Rights Perspective.

The intervention was also sponsored by VIDES International (the Women’s International Voluntary Service for Education and Development), the Salesian Mission Office in New Rochelle and VIS (the International Volunteers for Development) and has received support from the Committee for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, the Don Bosco Network, the Jóvenes y Desarrollo Foundation, the Salesian Mission Office in Madrid and VIA Don Bosco.

In their statement the International Institute of Mary Help of Christians points out that the principle of the universality of human rights is in fact hampered by various factors, including an "inadequate political and social participation of young people". It showed how the utmost care and attention is neessary at the transition phase from childhood to youth, and has called on the Member States of the United Nations to:

• take concrete action to encourage participation, the strengthening and empowerment of young people;
• systematically promote the participation of young people in the Treaty Bodies, the Special Procedures and the Universal Periodic Review;
• move to full implementation of the right to participation, as established by the Convention of the Rights of the Child, and in particular to ratify the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention, which governs the conduct of the action, individual or group, by children and adolescent victims whose rights are being violated.

Published 23/03/2015