Message
of the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan
The theme of this year’s World Population Day, “One
billion adolescents: the right to health, information and
services”, highlights the need to support young people
in their efforts to lead safe, rewarding lives and contribute
to the well-being of their families and communities. Throughout
the world, millions of girls and boys are deprived of an
education, harming their individual prospects and those
of society at large. In some countries, half of all girls
are married before the age of 18, often resulting in early
childbearing that poses serious health risks to both mother
and child. Experience shows that educated women are more
likely to marry later, and have healthy and better educated
children, who will pass on these benefits from one generation
to the next. Education and information also influence how
many children they will have. If a woman were to wait until
age 23, instead of age 18, to have her first child, that
alone could reduce the momentum in population growth by
over 40 per cent.
Information and services are also crucial
in the fight against AIDS and the broader quest for good
health. Young people
should know how the HIV virus is transmitted, and how to
protect themselves from infection. This is important everywhere
but is absolutely critical in countries where infection rates
are already high or quickly rising. Reproductive health services
and factual information about reproductive health will also
help young people to avoid risky behaviour, unwanted pregnancy
and poor health in general. And in conflict zones, where
levels of sexual violence and abuse are dramatically heightened,
young people need appropriate and sensitive services to recover
and participate in their country’s return to normal
life.
If the world is to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals and implement the programme of action
adopted at the
International
Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994,
the most effective interventions will involve young people
themselves. It is they who can best identify their needs,
and who must help design the programmes that address them.
One
of every six people on earth is an adolescent. In the
developing world, more than 40 percent of the population
is under age 20. The decisions these young people make
will
shape our world and the prospects of future generations.
On this World Population Day, let us recognize their right
to the health, information and services they need and deserve.
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