In 1999 the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 54/120, which declared 12 August International Youth Day. At the General Assembly that year was Australia’s inaugural Youth Representative to the United Nations, Andrew Husdon.
“I remember feeling very lonely in New York as the first Youth Rep,” Andrew told UN Youth in an interview in 2019.… Read more ›
August 9 commemorates the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. The day aims to raise awareness and protect the rights of the world’s Indigenous population.
It’s also a day to recognise the work of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.… Read more ›
At this point in time, you either live under a rock, do not engage in any social media platform or you are busy preparing for the next dystopian fantasy the world will undoubtedly eject itself into. We’ve had a World War 3 scare, a global pandemic, devastating bushfires, destructive uprisings and hornet swarms.… Read more ›
In every state and territory of Australia, a child in Grade 4 can be arrested by police, put in front of a court and sent away to prison. It’s a blight on the law of this country, and it needs to stop.… Read more ›
Kevin Rudd was 15 years old when he wrote a letter to then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam asking for advice on becoming a diplomat, Gough replied and set Kevin’s life journey into motion.
“[Gough wrote] ‘I really think you should go to university and you should study a foreign language’ so that kind of began the idea,” Rudd tells me over a Zoom call with a smile on his face.… Read more ›
Jack Ward is a 17-year-old journalist based out of Ararat, Victoria. After his local newspaper shut down earlier this year, Jack was the only journalist for the entire town. He spoke with UN Youth about the importance of journalism, youth voices and skills.… Read more ›
By Genevieve Whitford
If you ever asked me – I would say unbudgingly that Australia is one of the most hypercritical countries to exist.
Recently, leaked footage of the murder of an American black man became viral online, which depicted him being suffocated by a white policeman.… Read more ›
By Harvey Bruce
So you’re friends with someone in a queer relationship…
I am very privileged as a queer person to say that I grew up around allies, and throughout my life have continued to be surrounded by allies. Sometimes as queer people we avoid the uncomfortable conversation with our straight friends, that there is a good and a bad way to be an ally.… Read more ›
Racism was the most raised issue among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in the 2019 UN Youth Representative Listening Tour, with 64 percent of respondents selecting it compared with 58 percent of non-Indigenous respondents. In consultations, young people spoke of frequent experiences with structural and systemic racism.… Read more ›
At UN Youth we ask young Australians to critically engage with global issues, and think about how they themselves can be a part of solutions. In this period of time, we have watched as the Black Lives Matter movement has inspired a global response to institutionalised racism, both abroad and at home.… Read more ›
