Youth: Our Hope, Our Future

The thematic exhibition "Youth: Our Hope, Our Future" dedicated to the International Youth Day is opened from August 7 to September 13 in the International Organizations reading room (room 207).

This Day was established by the UN General Assembly on December 17, 1999 (resolution 54/120) and has been celebrated annually since 2000 on August 12. The holiday was established at the suggestion of the World Conference of Ministers responsible for Youth, held in Lisbon in August 1998.

The main goal of the International Youth Day is to solve the problems of today's young people, who represent the most active and mobile part of society, quickly adapting to changes and more easily acquiring new knowledge.

Youth is a socio-demographic group that has social and psychological traits due to the age characteristics of young people, the process of the formation of their spiritual world, the specificity of the situation in the social structure of society. The age criteria for youth are not clear. Typically, young people include people between the ages of 16 and 30. However, depending on socio-economic and other factors, the lower and upper limits can be shifted. The UN classification treats young people under the age of 24 as young people. There are about 1.8 billion young people in the whole world at a total world population of 7.3 billion people.

Recognizing that the younger generation of all countries is the main human resource for development, positive social change and technological innovation, the United Nations has always paid great attention to addressing the problems and challenges of youth at the global, regional and national levels.

In 1985, the UN held the first International Year of Youth. Ten years later, the General Assembly adopted the World Program of Action for Youth, which consolidated the policy and principles of the activities of individual states and the support of this activity by the world community in order to improve the life of the younger generation. The program was expanded in 2007 (General Assembly resolution 62/126 of 18 December 2007).

Today, the World Program plays a key role in the development of youth. It focuses on measures to strengthen the activities of states in relation to the younger generation, as well as the steps to improve the quality and empowerment available to young people so that they can participate fully, effectively and constructively in society.

Every year the events dedicated to the Day of Youth, including various concerts, exhibitions, conferences, seminars, are held under a certain motto. The theme of the International Youth Day 2018 is "Safe Spaces for Youth".

Young people need safe spaces where they can get together, engage in activities related to their needs and interests, participate in decision-making processes and freely express their opinions.

The thematic book exhibition reveals the social, cultural, economic and political aspects of the situation of youth in modern society. The exposition presents more than 100 publications: publications of foreign and domestic authors, documents of international organizations in Russian, English, French and German.

The exhibition includes the following topics:

• Youth in the modern world
• International legal instruments and programs relating to youth
• Education of youth
• Youth and the labor market
• Youth health
• State Youth Policy of the Republic of Belarus

The exhibition will be interesting to teachers, researchers, postgraduates, students, as well as to all who are interested in issues of youth policy in our country and in the world.

Useful Links:

• The International Youth Day
  
• General Assembly Resolution 54/120 on the proclamation of the Day
  
• The Lisbon Declaration on Youth Policy and Programs
  
• The World Program of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond (1995) and its Supplement (2007)
  
• United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty
  
• United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (The Beijing Rules) (1985)
  
• Declaration on the Propagation among Youth of the Ideals of Peace, Mutual Respect and Understanding between Peoples  (1965)
  

The opening hours of the exhibition corresponds to the library’s opening hours.
Entrance to the exhibition is available by the library ticket or ticket of the library's social and cultural center.

For more info: (+375 17) 293 27 34.