Abstract

MUNOZ GONZALEZ, Germán. Temas y problemas de los jóvenes colombianos al comenzar el siglo XXI. Rev.latinoam.cienc.soc.niñez juv [online]. 2003, vol.1, n.1, pp.145-180. ISSN 1692-715X.

It is estimated that in the year 2000 Colombia's young population (between 14 to 24 years) would equal 21% of the total population** In this age group -and especially, among the poorest youth- serious exclusion problems are concentrated, leading to lack of opportunities and to the reproduction of poverty. Colombian young men have the highest indexes of violent deaths and the smallest life expectancies in comparison with those of other countries of Latin America. Moreover, a wide number of them are excluded simultaneously from school, from written tradition, from science and technology, from employment possibilities, from political participation, and from recreation and the possibilities of expression of their potentialities. This situation ends up becoming a "petri dish" for entrance to diverse circuits of illegality: armed groups (guerrilla, paramilitaries, common delinquency), nets of drug trafficking and smuggling, prostitution, etc. A significant initiative was the approval of the Law regarding Youth in 1997. This law sets up an institutional system which is to design, implement and evaluate public policy regarding youth. It also provides for the creation of mechanisms or protection for the young and for the participation of civil society in the development of policies and programs in different ways. In spite o this, however, youth have not yet been able to enter fully into the public agenda. There remains then a great challenge: being conscious of the role played by youth in the construction of more prosperous and just societies, and facing decisively the need for a substantial transformation of those public policies affecting them.

Keywords : youth; rights; public policies; development plan.

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