Message from Ms. Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, on the Occasion of the International Youth Day

教科文组织总干事奥德蕾·阿祖莱国际青年日致辞

12 August 2021

2021年8月12日

Although youth is a wonderful period marked by encounters, first commitments and new horizons, it is also sometimes wrought with instability and vulnerability.

青春岁月风姿多彩，正是青年与人结识、走向社会、迈向新天地的大好时光，然而有时这也是一个不稳定和脆弱的年龄。

The crisis brought about by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is a stark reminder of this. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), after women, young people have been the hardest hit by job losses. Youth employment fell by 8.7% in 2020, compared to a 3.7% drop for people over 24 years of age.

这场疫情危机无情地提醒了我们这一点。根据国际劳工组织的数据，青年受失业影响最为严重，仅次于女性：2020年青年就业率下降8.7%，而24岁以上人口就业率下降3.7%。

The COVID-19 crisis has generated a mental health and education crisis for young people, and its consequences may well last for many years.

无论是从心理健康还是从教育层面看，这场COVID-19疫情危机都是一场青年危机，其影响有可能持续多年。

We therefore have a responsibility to act on behalf of these young people, who are the future of the world. To do this, we can rely on their formidable inventiveness, because young people are often the first to invent solutions to the problems that concern them.

因此，我们有责任为那些肩负着世界未来的青年采取行动。为此，我们应该依靠青年身上所拥有的非凡创造力，因为青年往往最有办法去解决与他们相关的问题。

The Youth as Researchers initiative, launched by UNESCO in 2020, harnesses this resilience and aims to support youth-led research projects on the COVID-19 pandemic.

教科文组织于2020年发起的“青年研究者”倡议正是为了发挥青年的这种应对能力，支持由青年领导的关于这一大流行的研究项目。

This is also why UNESCO intends to explore the idea of a global system of grants to finance research projects and grassroots action led by young people. This shall be done during an international conference on the impact of the pandemic on young people that we are organizing in September.

也正因如此，教科文组织打算在今年9月举办疫情对青年之影响问题国际研讨会之时，探讨建立全球资助体系的设想，以期为青年担纲的研究项目和实地行动提供资助。

In reality, this need for young people to act for themselves applies to our entire mandate because, as Patti Smith notes in her novel Just Kids, “Who can know the heart of youth but youth itself?” Young people are thus involved in developing UNESCO’s actions, for example with the Global Youth Community, the Youth UNESCO Climate Action Network (YoU-CAN) and projects to prevent violent extremism. These are the best means to reach them in a relevant and useful way.

这种由青年采取行动并且为青年采取行动的要求，实际上关系到我们的全部任务使命，因为正如佩蒂·史密斯在小说《只是孩子》中这样问道：“谁能知道青年心中所思所念，除了他们自己？”通过这种方式，青年得以参与到教科文组织各项行动的构想当中，比如教科文组织全球青年社区、青年气候行动网络和防止暴力极端主义项目。这其实是一种最好的方式，不仅促进青年参与，还使之切合实际并行之有效。

On this International Youth Day, UNESCO therefore invites young people to continue to engage and invites all of civil society to tap into the immense potential of this unique, productive and incredibly capable youth.

值此国际日之际，教科文组织邀请青年继续参与，并邀请所有民间社会行为者让青年的巨大潜力得到发挥，展现出青年独特、丰富和能力非凡的风采。