Chairperson
Distinguished delegates
Ladies and gentlemen
Chairperson, allow me to thank Mexico for hosting this important conference and to express our sincere gratitude for the hospitality that we have received since our arrival.
We are very grateful for the reconciliatory character of your hospitality given the fact that only a few weeks ago we were adversaries on the football field during the opening game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
We thank all countries represented here, Mexico in particular, for attending the first world cup on the African continent in such large numbers. It was encouraging to see sport bring so many young people together both on and off the field. We wish the government and the people of Brazil well as they prepare to host the next world cup in 2014.
We hope to see many young people from across the world in South Africa again when we host the 17th World Festival of Youth and Students in South Africa from 13 to 21 December 2010.
Chairperson, we would like to express our solidarity with the people of Pakistan following the devastating floods that have caused so much misery.
We associate ourselves with the remarks made by the esteemed representative of the African Union on behalf of the African region.
Chairperson, a quarter of a century has passed since the General Assembly of the United Nations declared 1985 the first International Year of the youth.
The youth of South Africa marked that year whilst being at the forefront of the struggle against apartheid colonialism which denied the majority citizenship and development.
Thousands were detained without trial, tortured and assassinated after the regime declared a national state of emergency in July 1985. The regime also intensified its destabilising violence against our neighbours who stood by us in solidarity, devastating the lives many young people.
These young people were following in the footsteps of giants such as Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu who formed the African National Congress Youth League in 1944 as well those who participated in student uprisings that started in Soweto on 16 June 1976, a day now commemorated as South African Youth Day.
We reiterate our thanks to the people of Mexico, who are commemorating the bi-centenary of their independence and the centenary of their revolution this year, for the support and solidarity they showed with the people of South Africa during those difficult times.
Chairperson, the late President of the African National Congress, Oliver Tambo, said that, "A country, a people, a movement that does not value its youth does not deserve its future".
With these words he was anticipating the preamble of the African Youth Charter, "that Africa's greatest resource is its youthful population and that through their active and full participation Africans can surmount the difficulties that lie ahead".
He was also paying homage to what this charter describes as, "the role that the youth have played in the process of decolonisation, the struggle against apartheid and more recently in its efforts to encourage the development and to encourage the democratic process on the African continent".
Chairperson, as we mark the second International Year of the Youth in 2010 we do so in a free and democratic South Africa that is obeying the injunction of President Oliver Tambo to value its youth, in word and indeed.
We do so based on an understanding that young people should be considered as beneficiaries and as agents of change and not as passive recipients of government services.
We are firm in our conviction that youth development should be viewed as an integral part of addressing the challenges of South Africa's development and should be seen as a central process in building a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous society.
Our national youth policy understands youth development as an intentional comprehensive approach that provides space, opportunities and support for young people to maximise their individual and collective creative energies for personal development as well as development of the broader society of which they are an integral part.
Chairperson, since attaining democracy in 1994 South Africa has made massive strides in realising this vision through the creation of a conducive policy and institutional environment.
Our policies are consonant with the African Youth Charter (2006), the declaration of the years 2009 to 2018 as the African Decade for Youth Development and the Plan of Action for the Decade as well as the millennium development goals (MDGs) and the World Programme of Action on youth.
Our Constitution guarantees not only political rights but a range of socio-economic rights that impact directly on the quality of life and development of young people.
Our Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) commits government to ensure that suitable programmes are established to ensure redress of backlogs in education and training, job creation and recreation.
We have also adopted a national youth development policy framework and a national youth policy 2009 to 2014.
At an institutional level, we created a National Youth Commission based in The Presidency as well as a National Youth Fund. These institutions have recently been amalgamated into the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), also based in The Presidency.
Many laws such as the Children's Act, Child Justice Act have fundamentally transformed the legal framework affecting young people. Other legislative measures such as the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Bill have also been introduced.
Government has elevated issues of particular concern to young people such as health, education, job creation, rural development and food security as well as fighting crime and corruption to key national priorities.
Chairperson, however, despite the fact that much has been achieved both in creating a conducive policy and institutional environment as well as the implementation of these policies, we also recognise that there is much more that needs to be done.
We recognise also that we can only succeed by working together as a society. It will require the coordinated efforts of government departments and agencies, non-governmental and community based organisations as well as the private sector.
Chairperson, these challenges it will also require working together at an international level, in particular strengthening African and south-south cooperation while at the same time strengthening relations with formations of the north and participating actively in a transformed system of global governance.
In this regard we propose, amongst others, that consideration be given to the establishment of a United Nations Youth Development Committee dedicated to addressing youth development issues as well the establishment of a United Nations Agency that will fund, support and promote youth development and the for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to facilitate a process that will lead to the adoption of a United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Youth.
We thank the participants in the social and parliamentary fora for the valuable contribution they have made to this conference.
Chairperson, in conclusion, we are confident that this conference will agree upon a declaration that will pronounce clearly on the burning issues facing world youth and provide guidance to the United Nations General Assembly when it meets in September this year.
I thank you.
National statement by Mr Andries Nel, MP, Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development of the Republic of South Africa to the World Youth Conference, Leon de los Aldama, Mexico
