Youth Call To Actioneeca_20112009_with Signatures

13 November 2009, Istanbul

We, young people from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, are delighted to contribute to ICPD at 15 High Level Forum on Population and Development. We are here to celebrate that over the last 15 years we have been focusing on population and development issues from human rights perspective, especially on youth sexual and reproductive health and rights. We acknowledge efforts to achieve goals in PoA by our governments. Being aware that there are yet many things to be done, we are committed and we offer our knowledge, skills, enthusiasm, experience, creativity and dedication to move forward ICPD agenda. Reaffirming the Youth Statement developed by young people from 66 countries at the Youth Symposium prior to Berlin Global Partners in Action: NGO Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Development, we hereby call for further actions for Eastern Europe and Central Asia region; Acknowledge diversities among young people: We are women, men, lesbians, gays, heterosexuals, transgender; in school, out of school, sex workers, married, divorced, single or in a relationship; we live with HIV and AIDS; we are disabled; we are migrants, refugees, displaced, trafficked; we are working, jobless or seeking employment; we speak different languages; we have different spiritual beliefs and practices; we have different perceptions of the world around us; we use different media and social networks to communicate globally. Therefore, policies and programs targeting us should acknowledge and respect our diversity by conducting research, collecting disaggregated data by age, sex/ gender, involving primary stakeholders at every stage and eliminate the existing policies that discriminate against us.1 Scale up Information, Education and Services; Young people have right to enjoy their sexual and reproductive health in a safe and pleasurable way. Therefore we need; •

Compulsory, comprehensive sexuality education provided in schools,

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Sustainable youth friendly health services and successful integration is guaranteed by states,

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Access to essential health services without legal and procedural barriers in order to enable young people to make informed choices about their lives.

Strengthen Partnerships: States should ensure that the different sectors and institutions of society serving young people are fully informed, sensitized on youth sexual and reproductive health and rights and empowered to work together with young people. States, decisions makers, international agencies, donors, and NGO’s should make sure that young people are represented in decision making bodies forming at least 15% of votes. These efforts should be continuous and include investing in young people, considering diversity among us, through mentoring programmes, capacitybuilding initiatives and youth-adult partnerships. Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights as Essential Component in Our Development: We have a lot of concerns regarding our lives. Unemployment, quality of education, poverty, migration, violence, social injustice, housing, social security... All these issues affect our ability to make decisions regarding our lives and act upon them, especially on our sexual and reproductive health and rights. Therefore interlinkages between sexual and reproductive health and rights and all of these issues need to be considered as vital element in designing development policies and programmes to enable young people to become active citizens. We also call upon you as decision makers, and also as parents, partners, brothers, sisters, friends, sons and daughters, to sensitize people around you and break taboos on youth sexual and reproductive rights even by talking with the person next to you. 1

Youth Statement,

Global Partners in Action: NGO forum on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Development

Together we can! SUPPORTED BY; Ahmet Alper Ege, Turkey Alexander Pak, EECARO, UNFPA Anina Chileva, Executive PETRI – Sofia Chanan Development Association (CDA) Pakistan Christina Nichifor , Family Planning Association of Cyprus and YouAct Deputy Minister Of Health Tajikistan, Djurayeva Desislava Atanasova, Member of Parliament of Bulgaria Dilek Okkalı Sanalmış, Turkey Emre Ural, Turkey Enver Taştı, Turkey Eppn Mikkonen – Jeanneret, Regional Representative HelpAge International, EECA Johan Stellansson, Regional Coordinator, Asia, RFSU LAFPSH, “Papardes Zieds” Leyla Sharafi, UNFPA HQ, Technical Division GHRCB MDG Youth Network of Uzbekistan Melek Özgür Pekbaş, Turkey Rachel Erhard, IPPF, Israel Svetlana Moroz, GNP+ Eastern Europe Representative YouAct, European Youth Network on Sexual and Reproductive Rights Youth Advocacy Network on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Pakistan Youth Voluntary Center “Shymkent_plus” at South Kazakhstan branch of Business Women Association Women of Kazakhstan. Y-PEER, Youth Peer Education Network YSAFE Zukhra Ahmedova, UNFPA Country Office in Tajikistan