The European Commission launches youth health initiative - Sexual Health identified as one of the top priority areas for youth’s health.
Involving young people more actively in developing EU health policies is the aim of an initiative launched by the European Commissioner for Health. The initiative entitled 'Be healthy, be yourself' kicked off with a high level Conference on Youth Health in Brussels on 9 and 10 July 2009.
Over 200 young people, from across Europe, aged 18-25 years met with policymakers and health organisations to debate key health issues affecting young people. This conference on youth health was organised jointly with the European Youth Forum (EYF), the biggest player on youth issues in Europe, representing 99 national youth councils and international youth organizations from across Europe.
The conference explored how adolescents are influenced by various factors such as their experience at school/college or at work, the society and culture they grow up in, relationships with families and peers, etc.
Prior to the official conference, EYF held a youth camp for young people attending the conference, where IPPF European Network (IPPF EN) staff and 3 young volunteers were invited to facilitate a workshop on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) which explored the challenges and dilemmas that young people face with regard to sexuality and reproduction.
The IPPF Regional Office for Europe and IPPF EN’s youth network YSAFE have worked closely with the European Commission Directorate for Health (DG SANCO) in the preparation of this major event.
SRHR were very present in the agenda of the conference and stressed by many speakers and participants. At the end of the conference, sexual health was highlighted as a key priority area of the future work of the European Commission on youth and health.
A short document highlighting the main suggestions/issues raised within the youth camp and during the conference will be prepared by the EYF and the EC. This document will be the first step in building a European Commission roadmap setting out implementation and next steps on the priorities agreed upon at the conference. To be published shortly, this roadmap will reflect the EC mandate on health issues which is essentially to work on prevention, health promotion and the exchange of best practices.
This also follows the inclusion of sexual health in the new EU strategy for youth health policy for the coming decade, allowing for the creation of strategic partnerships and a multi sector approach within the European Commission.
For more information on the EC strategy on Youth see link http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2009:0200:FIN:EN:PDF : ref to sexual health: first line of pg