Online Event – The Commitment of the Human Rights Council to Youth and Human Rights: Addressing the Digital Divide, Online Threats and Mental Health

On 12 December 2024 at 1:30 pm CET, IIMA hosted the online event “The Commitment of the Human Rights Council to Youth and Human Rights: Addressing the Digital Divide, Online Threats and Mental Health.” Along with the aforementioned organizers, the event was supported by Misean Cara and co-sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Romania and the Salesian Sisters of Ireland. This event underscored the importance of including youth voices to increase digital literacy around the world. With this in mind, four girls and young women: 16-year-old Sanchita from India, 13-year-old Luciana from Peru, 17-year-old Sami from Ecuador, and 22-year-old Maria from South Sudan spoke about their experiences with digital literacy and mental health awareness. Additionally, Ms. Maria Mihailescu from the Permanent Mission of Romania and Ms. Helen Griffiths from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) spoke on the efforts undertaken by Romania and the OHCHR to increase digital education and emphasized best practices to advance digital literacy around the world respectively.

The event opened with remarks from moderator, Ms. Maria D’Onofrio, IIMA and VIDES Advocacy Officer. She informed attendees that this event was part of a larger project run by the organizers to empower girls from Ecuador, India, Kenya, Nepal, Peru, and South Sudan. Following this, she highlighted the importance of hosting a space for empowered adolescents and youth to share their experiences and views with State representatives, UN officers, and other stakeholders in order to bridge the digital divide. Moreover, she welcomed the recent decision from the Human Rights Council (HRC) to request a study addressing the impact of mental health challenges on the enjoyment of human rights by young people to be submitted to the HRC in September-October 2026 (see HRC Resolution 57/30). With this in mind, she opened the floor to the youth speakers.

16-year-old Sanchita from India shared her story of how a lack of technology and digital infrastructure has affected her education. Growing up in a rural, low-income household, she could not have proper education, therefore she stayed in a hostel affiliated to her school in another state of India. Since she was in her hometown during Covid-19 pandemic, her mother bought the family their first mobile phone to allow Sanchita and her sibling to attend school online. This was a very difficult time to continue her studies as there was limited internet connectivity in her village. Sanchita, however, was one of the lucky ones as she is still in school today: thanks to a scholarship, she attends a private school run by RNDM sisters, which is well equipped with internet facilities and digital devises. “Digital education makes our education more attractive and student friendly” – Sanchita said. In India, there is a preference for boys to go to school rather than girls. Many girls leave school to get married by the time they reach adolescence. Sanchita believes that increased digital education is a way for more girls to continue their education and thus, decrease the digital and educational divide between boys and girls. She currently sees three main roadblocks for increased digital education especially relating to girls: cultural gender-bias, poverty in families and rural areas, and poor internet connectivity and electrical infrastructure.

13-year-old Luciana from Peru described how receiving digital literacy training has empowered her to navigate the internet safely. She began her story by recounting how the opening of a highway from Peru to Brazil in 2013 increased trade and generally improved the lives of the citizens in both countries with the amplification of the ability to travel. As with most innovations, this highway unfortunately also had downsides: there was increased human trafficking along this highway due to the greater ease of mobility. Through this adept example, one can see how this same phenomenon is present in our current digital landscape; the internet is vastly improving the lives of millions of people, however, is also increasing the exposure to online threats especially for girls. Luciana comes from a rural farming community where there is limited access to the internet. Even with limited accessibility, the internet still is home to many dangers. Through taking digital literacy workshops, Luciana was given the knowledge and tools necessary to feel empowered and access the internet safely. She closed her remarks by stating that: “We, the girls from rural areas, want to exercise our rights online permanently, efficiently and securely. Just as I have had the possibility thanks to this empowerment project, all girls need to be able to learn about secure platforms that help empower us and enable us to choose who we want to be in the future.”

17-year-old Sami from Ecuador focused on the importance of mental health especially for adolescents and young people. She began by commenting on how mental health has been a taboo in her community for a long time, and yet, is still quite relevant and affects many adolescents and young people’s lives every day. She stressed out how mental health is essential for fully exercising human rights, emphasizing that guaranteeing rights is not only about having them in theory but ensuring the conditions to exercise them well and fully.  “As adolescents, we project ourselves into what our future will be as “young people” over 18 years old, with even greater responsibilities than we have now. And we worry about how we will build our lives with so many challenges that we already know we will encounter.” – Sami said.  Mental health in adolescents and youth is, therefore, a topic that deserves much attention, especially in vulnerable contexts. With the other girls of her community in Ecuador, Sami identified many “macro” factors—those related to the environment in which they live—that affect their emotional well-being as adolescents (parental and family migration, poverty, unemployment, drought, and, as a consequence, lack of electricity) and their quality of life, depriving of opportunities, and increasing stress and anxiety.  Even beyond the situation of specific countries, the global environmental crisis deeply concerns especially adolescents and young people because it casts doubt not only on what kind of future awaits them but whether they will have a future at all.  Mental health is much more than simply being well or thinking well; it is feeling well, feeling comfortable, and knowing that if at some point I am not, I need to say it, talk about it, and search for help. For this reason, it is crucial to expand mental health workshops especially geared for adolescents to increase mental health awareness.

22-year-old Maria from South Sudan reflected on how her time as a volunteer working with girls and young women increased her awareness of mental health for young people. After witnessing many girls and young women experience anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Maria along with other volunteers began to give mental health talks geared for adolescent girls. “One of the things we have come to realize is that mental health issues, that can concern any person regardless of age, tend to escalate when applied to adolescents and young people. […] So many are the expectations and responsibilities for those transiting (at around 18 to 25 years) from being “children/adolescents” to being “young adults”. The peculiarity of this important transition in our lives can become “breeding ground” for mental health issues, making young people somehow more vulnerable. I realized this was a “youth issue” that needed a “youth response” – Maria said. These workshops greatly helped the girls as they began to understand their emotional state and learned tips and tools for better mental health. Women and girls all over the world, face similar mental health challenges every year, however, the mental health challenges faced by the women and girls of South Sudan are further exacerbated by underlining human rights issues such as lack to education, lack of nutrition, and teen pregnancy. Maria praised the Human Rights Council’s decision to spearhead a new study on the effects of mental health on the enjoyment of youth rights.

Ms. Maria Mihailescu, Human Rights Representative from the Permanent Mission of Romania, reminded the audience that children and youth are very important as they are the future, highlighting the key role of youth education and participation as human rights. To this end, she answered some questions made by the youth speakers. In response to Sanchita’s question on what some best practices for increasing digital education are, Ms. Mihailescu highlighted how Romania created a digital platform for open education resources for both students and teachers. This platform can be accessed from any device and makes education accessible for all in Romania. Additionally, this project included the rollout of technology such as laptops to secondary school students. In response to Luciana’s question to how children and young people can have safe online access, Ms. Mihailescu underlined the importance of digital literacy. Through this, young people would learn how balance time online and offline, how to discern what is real online, and how to address cyber bullying. In response to Sami’s question on why mental health was chosen as the focus for the next study requested by the HRC, Ms. Mihailescu noted that the number of negative online experiences has only been increasing. This adds to mental health challenges. Additionally, she highlighted the key role of youth focused civil society organizations -like the organizers of this online event- to bring this topic to the attention of Member States. Overall, there is overwhelming support among Member States to increase mental health awareness for youth.

Ms. Helen Griffiths from the OHCHR’s Child and Youth Rights Unit, reiterated how important youth are in the human rights process. Recent UN documents such as the UN Youth Strategy and the Pact for the Future reinforce the UN’s commitment to work with and for youth. With this in mind, Ms. Griffiths replied to a young speaker’s question, explaining how the OHCHR will prepare for the upcoming mental health study by consulting experts in the field including young people. After this, they will place a call for inputs which is a set of key questions on the topic. This call for inputs is sent to states, national human rights institutions, other UN bodies, and civil society. After the inputs are received, the OHCHR will compile the data and create the report. After these remarks, a brief Q&A followed.

Overall, the event underscored the urgent need to address the digital divide and mental health challenges faced by youth worldwide. The youth speakers ended by reminding the audience of the need to increase digital education, digital literacy, and mental health education. Ms. Mihailescu and Ms. Griffiths commended the youth speakers for sharing their experiences and encouraged them to continue to speak up. Ms. Griffiths ended the event by sharing information about the Youth Rights Academy hosted by the OHCHR in 2025.