A/HRC/35/7 III. Overview of the presentations by the panellists 9. The moderator said that the aim of the panel discussion was to identify challenges and best practices in the exercise of human rights for young people. Currently, youth made up the largest young generation the world had ever known. The many challenges faced by young people required efforts on the part of the international community and all stakeholders. Young people should not and could not be left aside, and should be recognized as a key driving force for the future. Emphasis was needed on quality education, decent employment and the ability to exercise active citizenship in order to make young people feel an integral part of society; they should be given more opportunities to express their views on social and political issues, and more forums should be organized to that end at both the national and international levels. Empowering youth was an undeniable obligation of everyone in the Human Rights Council, and ensuring the enjoyment of young people’s human rights was the most important legacy that could be left for generations to come. 10. The member of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights stressed that the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had strong crosscutting anti-discrimination provisions and contained explicit and implicit provisions for young people. There were measures to protect and assist all children and young persons without discrimination, including from economic and social exploitation. Articles 13 and 14 on the right to education were entirely dedicated to children and young people, important elements being the obligation on States parties that had not been able to do so prior to becoming parties to the Covenant to guarantee the progressive implementation of the principle of compulsory education free of charge for all, and measures to make education accessible to all. The implicit Covenant provisions to enhance economic and social rights, reflected in the Committee’s reporting guidelines to States parties, addressed employment, technical and vocational training, social services to support families, improvement of child and maternal health and prevention and rehabilitation in the context of alcohol, tobacco and drug abuse. 11. Recurrent challenges to the exercise of human rights by young people included difficulties in accessing the job market, even for highly qualified young people, and youth unemployment rates that were much higher than those of adults; inadequacies in education and skills training, particularly in rural areas, leading to an influx of youth into urban areas; a lack of access to health-care services, including for sexual and reproductive health; and the ineffectiveness of the schooling system, which led to high dropout rates and low levels of literacy. Young girls and women were often at a disadvantage in comparison to men, whether in relation to education, participation in the labour market or poverty in general, due to their unequal access to resources, goods and services. In addressing those challenges, States should enact legislation to combat all forms of discrimination, adopt and implement long-term policies with effective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, implement targeted measures for the promotion and protection of the rights of specific groups of young people that faced particular difficulties and provide goods and services that were accessible, affordable and of high quality. 12. She shared suggestions to strengthen the human rights framework for young people, and noted that while the normative framework was relatively comprehensive, implementation, monitoring and information gaps underpinned the lack of fulfilment of rights for young people. She encouraged States to adopt and implement policies and programmes for the promotion and protection of the rights of young people, and to provide adequate information in their reports to treaty bodies on measures taken, using statistics and disaggregated human rights indicators, so that the treaty bodies could engage in meaningful dialogue with States in that regard, including by making specific recommendations. She recommended that organizations led by or focused on young people should engage with other interested stakeholders to raise the visibility of the human rights framework at the national level, and contribute to the efforts of non-governmental organizations by submitting to the treaty bodies alternative reports on the implementation of human rights. In their efforts to connect and work with young people, States should be guided by their 4