International Youth Day was established by the UN General Assembly on December 17, 1999 on the proposal of the World Conference of Ministers of Youth held in Lisbon on August 8-12, 1998. Resolution No. 54/120.
The Conference recommended the organization of promotional activities in support of the Day in order to raise awareness, especially among young people, of the World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond, adopted by the Assembly in 1995.
While youth constitute one quarter of the world's labor force, they account for half of the unemployed. Labor markets are struggling to provide stable employment with good prospects for young people, with the exception of the highly skilled.
Today, there are nearly 3 billion people under the age of 25 in the world. More than half a billion of them live in poverty. More than 100 million children are not attending school. Every day, some 30,000 children die of poverty. Every day 7,000 young people are infected with HIV/AIDS.
The UN General Secretary called on the international community to recognize the interdependence of generations and to address the problems of different ages together.