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Director-General/Executive Director
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear participants,
I’m very happy to be joining you today to open this year’s UNODC Youth Forum.
I am especially pleased to be able to welcome you to UNODC’s home here in Vienna, in person, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year we have 34 young people from 28 countries participating in the UNODC Youth Forum. It fills my heart with pride and optimism to see young men and women from around the world taking a strong interest in preventing drug use and promoting health in their communities.
This has been a personal mission of mine, throughout my career.
The pandemic is now subsiding, but we are still feeling its aftershocks, and your generation is among the most affected by the economic turmoil it has caused.
You have experienced great setbacks in education and opportunities.
The great challenge of your generation will be to overcome these losses.
We are ready to work with you to invest in your skills, your education, and your mental health, to reclaim your prospects and empower you to face the future with confidence.
Addressing drug use is an important part of that challenge.
UNODC’s World Drug Report 2022 shows that young people continue to use more drugs than adults, and current generations of young people have higher levels of drug use than past generations.
In Africa and Latin America, the majority of people being treated for drug use disorders are under the age of 35.
Meanwhile, youth are spending more and more time online, where illicit drug markets are expanding, and dangerous new psychoactive substances are appearing every day which are poorly understood but often appeal to younger age groups.
We need to reach out to young people and help them avoid negative coping behaviours such as drug use. We can do this through family skills support, psychosocial support, and by spreading the right messages using every means at our disposal.
To spread positive values, reaching out on social media, engaging in sports, promoting community service, and forming networks of support for young people are all very useful tools.
And to achieve this, we need youth like you to be our partners.
Your voices have the power to reach your peers and your communities more than anyone else. You can raise awareness and show young people like yourselves that they are supported.
We also need you to provide fresh solutions and innovative ideas.
You have unique tools, and imagination that no one else can match.
At UNODC, we are determined to work with and for youth for safer and healthier communities.
The empowerment of youth is a central commitment in UNODC’s 2021-2025 Strategy, and we consider it a priority across our activities.
In December 2022, we launched our new Youth Empowerment Accelerator Framework, which brings together all of our youth initiatives under one umbrella. This will allow us to better include and collaborate with you in our work.
Your engagement with international bodies such as the Commission on Narcotic Drugs is an important element of this framework. And your participation in this Youth Forum is a prime example of how you can be engaged with our work.
You must capitalize on this opportunity to learn about evidence-based drug prevention, and to connect and share ideas and good practices with each other.
Over the years, we have seen the Youth Forum pave the way for some encouraging and impactful work done by young people.
In 2019 for example, Forum participants made important contributions to the development of the Handbook on Youth Participation in Drug Prevention Work. They brought in vital perspectives on what to do and what not to do in order to actively involve young people in prevention work.
As a result, the handbook has become an effective tool for policymakers and community leaders.
In 2021, some of our youth participants from Norway translated and disseminated the materials from UNODC’s ‘Listen First’ campaign in their country, promoting social and emotional learning as a foundation for drug use prevention. They are now working on adapting the latest materials in the series.
Also in 2021, participants like you established the Youth Initiative Magazine, a creative, collaborative guide for similarly motivated young people who want to make a difference.
Three issues have been published so far, and the fourth is in the making.
I encourage you all to continue using the Youth Forum as a launching pad for new ideas and initiatives.
You will find many useful materials in UNODC’s school- and community-based prevention programmes, which we hope you can leverage within your own communities.
We are also working on a new a peer-to-peer prevention programme, to support action by youth for youth. We hope to make this tool available in the coming year.
Your voice must also be heard by those who are shaping international drug policy. I very much look forward to reading the declaration that you will agree in this Forum, and which will be considered by the CND.
The decisions being made by Member States will affect young people more than anyone. You have the right to be listened to, and the responsibility to speak up, and we take your contributions very seriously.
Dear participants,
Without passionate and motivated young people like yourselves, we would stand no hope of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
I call on each one of you to keep caring, keep working, and keep innovating.
The United Nations is with you, and the Secretary-General has made it a priority to listen to and work with young people in his report on Our Common Agenda, to give you a stronger voice in decision-making and more sustainable job opportunities, and to safeguard the rights of future generations.
I can promise you that my Office will continue to support you, in line with this vision, and working together with the Secretary-General’s Youth Envoy and the soon-to-be-launched UN Office on Youth.
Let us work together, as partners, for healthier communities and a healthier tomorrow.
Thank you.
