International Youth Day (August 12)

In 1999, the United Nations General Assembly declared that August 12 is International Youth Day. The Assembly recommended that public information activities be organized to support the Day as a way to promote better awareness of the World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond, adopted by the General Assembly in 1995 (resolution 50/81).

This year's theme is: SUSTAINABILITY: OUr Challenge. Our Future.

Sustainability does not only refer to maintaining environmental balance and renewal. Sustainability encapsulates three facets of life: the environment, society and the economy. We live our lives in the overlaps and intersections of these facets, and our actions and attitudes help shape them. Their changing shapes in turn affect the way we are able to live our lives. The negative effects of unsustainable behaviour are not easily contained. As has been proven by the global crises in food, the economy and the environment, the concept of the global village has gone beyond being a useful analogy to being a hard reality, making clear the need to adopt a global sense of social responsibility.

With these things in mind, as the energizers of today and the holders of tomorrow, it is imperative that youth embrace the challenge of sustainability in its fullness as they help pave the way forward through the 21st century and beyond. Youth action, inclusion, and their full participation are key to developing today's world for the generations of today and tomorrow and central to a sustainable existence.

Find out more, including ideas on how to celebrate International Youth Day, visit: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/iyouthday.htm