The Scout Movement has huge potential – and responsibility – to contribute to a better world: High Commissioner

Greetings, Scout leaders and members from across the globe.

Let me begin by saluting your remarkable work:

As leaders – empowering young people to be active, responsible members of our communities.

And as scouts – at the very forefront of efforts to build a more sustainable future.

As you know, we are living in troubling times – from devastating violence and war, and widening inequalities, to climate change and technologies such as Artificial Intelligence developing at lightning speed, outpacing our capacity to consider properly their benefits and risks.

We can only overcome these challenges together, and today’s youth – as tomorrow’s leaders – play a crucial role.

We need solutions grounded in the basic understanding that we are all equal members of the human family – each of us deserving of dignity, respect and justice.

Together, we must build inclusive communities, where everyone is welcome and where everyone has a voice no matter their background, the colour of their skin, or their sexual orientation or gender identity.

This is the task of human rights education: to foster our common humanity. To enable the participation and engagement of everyone in the collective realization of our human rights.

As the world's leading educational youth organization, the Scout Movement has huge potential – and responsibility – to support these goals.

Through Scouting activities, young people like yourselves learn the importance of values grounded in human rights – like equality, like respect for diversity, non-discrimination, and solidarity.

The Scout Movement also provides an important space to develop the critical thinking and leadership skills that are essential to advancing human rights.

In 1977, the World Scout Conference adopted a resolution supporting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Since then, other World Scout Conferences have adopted resolutions on human rights and human rights education, bringing the spirit of the Scout Movement close to the human rights framework.

So, as you discuss the World Scout Movement’s strategy for the next decade, I urge you to continue on this path.

Let the principles of human rights guide the Scout Movement’s push for a more peaceful, equal and sustainable world.