In Central and Eastern Europe youth and adolescents aged 15-24 constitute almost 11% of the population, which means there are over 30 million young people in the region. Along with women, they remain the most affected by this situation and yet their needs and challenges are not understood, recognised and addressed – young people disappear somewhere in the wider group of citizens. This brief is going to present the interlinked and cumulative barriers youth and adolescents experience in accessing basic sexual and reproductive health services and in exercising their sexual and reproductive rights.
ICPD Programme of Action calls for the promotion „to the fullest extent” of the health of young people and provision of services that are of good quality and sensitive to their needs and „safeguarding the rights of adolescents to privacy, confidentiality, respect and informed consent”1. However, the process of its implementation in the Central and Eastern Europe remains far from finished.
In the year of the 20th anniversary of Programme of Action, taking into account findings from the review processes and PoA’s broad mandate on interrelationships between population, sustained economic growth and sustainable development, economic status and empowerment of women, it is now time to reflect and adjust it to the current global reality. It is time to recognize and guarantee the full package of sexual and reproductive health and rights, with particular focus on young people, as fundamental part of the reaffirmed and expanded Programme of Action and post-2015 agenda.