Youth Coalitions

There are alot of youth organizations around the world that is taking up the challenge of airing out youth issues and fighting for their voice to be heard. Some of these youth organizations specificly target certain social issues while others are broad in nature. Some of these youth organizations are donor fundered while others operate for a profit.

Yet...all these youth organizations have one thing in common. And that is to advocate for the rights of young people. Rights that are agreed on by member countries in the UN Charters and Conventions. Some of these groups are Global Youth Coalition on HIV/Aids http://youthaidscoalition.org/, Taking It Global http://takingitglobal.org/ and even international organizations like World Bank and United Nations have their own youth section with their department.

Now when I did a posting on Sex Education....I sent a link to GYCA http://youthaidscoalition/ so young people visiting GYCA website can also visit the Yu Tok Blog. Well, I got a quite few visitors and some of those visitors wanted me to write something about their activities. One particular oranization, Youth Coalition http://youthcoalition.org/ wanted to invite me to a Pacific Training. This training is about Youth Sexual Reproductive Rights and it will be staged in Fiji early November 2007.

The interesting thing to note about Youth Coalition is that, unlike most NGO youths they actually have an office and have staffs that are working on contracts. Their office is based in Canada, have a full-time staff on contract and most amazingly...they have annual reports. Now talk about being organized for a youth group.......but thats not the end....they also have sponsors and some of their sponsors are Ford Foundation, Dutch Government and anonymouse donors.

Youth Coalition stands for the following values and principles:

• Sexual and reproductive rights are human rights, and therefore apply equally to young people.


• All human rights are universal and must not be limited on the grounds of conflict with religion, culture or tradition.


• Sexuality and sexual expression are integral parts of the personal identity of all human beings, therefore applying equally to young people.


• Youth participation is essential to ensure that sexual and reproductive health and rights programmes and policies address the needs of young people.


• Young people have a valuable contribution to make to society and must be given a voice in all policy and decision-making processes which is recognized, respected and incorporated.


• Sexual and reproductive health and rights information and education are vital in safeguarding and promoting the life, health, and well-being of young people.


• Sexual and reproductive health services are vital in safeguarding and promoting the life, health, and well-being of young people.


• All women, irrespective of age, have the right to medically safe, legal and accessible abortions.


• The sexual and reproductive lives of young people must be free of coercion or the threat of violence.


• Funding for sexual and reproductive health and rights programmes must meet the needs of all young people.
  

Now if you don't believe me.....visit the site http://www.youthcoalition.org/ yourself and see it.