A/HRC/35/7 globally was 53. Young people currently, despite being the most interconnected, most educated and healthiest generation, was also the generation at the gravest risk of being left far behind. As the economic and social histories of countries that experienced a rapid development curve after the Second World War proved, investing in young people and reaping the demographic dividend of young populations was of benefit to all. 6. The current needs of the world’s adolescents and young people were significant, including for schooling and higher education, life skills and vocational training, meaningful employment, safe homes, protection from violence and exploitation and for personal autonomy and decision-making about their bodies. Yet underpinning those needs and central to the assignment of responsibility for meeting those needs were their rights. Violations of their rights were the gravest threats to young peoples’ and adolescents’ wellbeing; the denial of their rights exacerbated vulnerability and entrenched inequality, and the violation and denial of certain rights, including sexual and reproductive rights, also derailed the realization of multiple other rights, such as the rights to education, employment and political participation. The priorities for action were clear. There was a need to: (a) ensure robust civic registration, including of births, marriages and causes of death, as those were the building blocks of legal personhood; (b) remove laws and tackle cultural norms that impeded young people’s personal progress; (c) end child marriage in law and in practice; (d) give boys and girls unfettered access to comprehensive sexuality education; (e) keep adolescents in school or keep them in education; and (f) build opportunities for them to keep learning and to bridge them back into learning. Adult behaviour and double standards in many cases impeded the dignity of young people, and a child’s safe passage from birth to adulthood was not the child’s responsibility, it was that of adults. Sharing political, economic and social space, assets and opportunities with young people was a priority, while building stable platforms for ongoing intergenerational dialogue. 7. In his video address, the Envoy of the Secretary-General on Youth noted that the adoption of the Human Rights Council resolution on youth and human rights was an opportunity to bring youth issues to the Council in a systematic and meaningful way. While the current generation of youth was the largest the world had ever known, significant gaps remained in human rights protection for young people, including access to political rights, the right to seek health services and the right to education. Lack of participation and opportunity isolated people, with adverse consequences for communities and societies. There had been many positive developments on the youth agenda globally in recent years. The Security Council had adopted resolution 2250 (2015) recognizing the positive role of young people in peacebuilding and preventing violent extremism. The Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development recognized that investing in children and youth was critical to achieving inclusive, equitable and sustainable development, and the United Nations Economic and Social Council had been holding a youth forum since 2012. Young people worldwide had been involved in developing the Sustainable Development Goals, which reflected their voices and calls, and youth development was a common feature of the 17 Goals. 8. Additional developments included the World Humanitarian Summit, held in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2016, and the Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action, which had been launched at the summit. Young people had also been involved in the preparations for and during the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in Paris in 2015, and the Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, held in Sendai, Japan, in 2015. The global youth movement had made great efforts in the past few years to ensure that youth issues were taken seriously on all fronts and that youth issues featured prominently in all of those processes. There were two more opportunities in 2016: the present panel discussion on youth and human rights, and the Forum on Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, to be convened for the first time by the Human Rights Council in November 2016. Together, the international community could widen the democratic space by strengthening youth participation and promoting young people’s rights. It was high time to define procedures and instruments that would ensure the systematic inclusion and review of the question of their rights in the work of the Council. 3