Marking this year’s International Youth Day, the Baha’i International Community has launched a major youth-focused statement entitled In the Vanguard: The Role of Youth in an Ever-Advancing Global Society. 

“The youth of the world have enormous potential to contribute decisively to the constructive transformation of society,” said BIC Representative Cecilia Schirmeister, who helped oversee the development and release of the statement. “Where this capacity has been recognized, and conscious effort made to release it, entirely new kinds of collaboration and partnership have emerged between different generations.”

Featuring the voices of youth and young adults from around the world, the statement explores lessons that have been learned about the distinct role that young people can play in mobilizing large numbers, of any age, to arise in action for the betterment of their society.  

“To overcome the many challenges facing humanity … the international community needs capable young leaders not by the tens and dozens but by the hundreds of thousands,” the statement reads. “How do entire populations—and not just small numbers of exceptionally motivated or connected individuals—come to function as effective actors shaping their societies’ development? And what is the distinctive role that youth, alongside other populations, can play?”

Central among the themes explored in the statement is the value seen in programs that help young people apply constructive ethical principles, through action, to advance both personal growth and social transformation.

“When assisted to explore issues of moral purpose over time and at depth, youth have demonstrated far greater capacity to overcome setbacks with resilience, to remain free from cynicism and bitterness in the face of adversity, and to protect hope and maintain a spirit of joy even in times of difficulty,” the statement reads. “Such qualities allow young people to sustain efforts for social change, not just for a year or two, but over the course of an entire lifetime.”

The statement also considers the participation of young people more concretely at the multilateral level and within the United Nations system. It highlights how the processes of transformation that often occur at the local level translate to parallel processes at the international level, and invites further exploration of how the United Nations system engages young people.