The Human Rights Council in its resolution 37/16 on the right to work, requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights examine the relationship between the realization of the right to work and the enjoyment of all human rights by young people.

Summary

The report provides an overview of the barriers youth face in enjoying their rights to access and participate in the labor market. It highlights that to tackle those barriers States should put in place concerted legislative, policy and budgetary measures with a strong gender lens, not only in the area of the right to work, but also in the area of interrelated and interdependent rights, such as the right to social security, the right to education and the right to participate in public affairs. This approach fosters youth’s empowerment and requires a fundamental shift to lay out the conditions for promoting young people as agents of their own future, change and progress.