Youth” is best understood as a period of transition from the dependence of childhood to adulthood’s independence and awareness of our interdependence as members of a community. Youth is a more fluid category than a fixed age-group.

“青年”一般被理解為一個(gè)過(guò)渡時(shí)期，指從童年的依賴到成年的獨(dú)立、以及意識(shí)到我們作為社會(huì)成員所具有的獨(dú)立性這樣一個(gè)時(shí)期。而青年實(shí)際上并不是一個(gè)固定的年齡段。

However， age is the easiest way to define this group， particularly in relation to education and employment. Therefore “youth” is often indicated as a person between the age where he/she may leave compulsory education， and the age at which he/she finds his/her first employment. This latter age limit has been increasing， as higher levels of unemployment and the cost of setting up an independent household puts many young people into a prolonged period of dependency.

然而年齡卻是定義青年的最簡(jiǎn)單方式，特別是和教育以及就業(yè)有關(guān)。因此，“青年”往往指的是一個(gè)人從結(jié)束義務(wù)教育之后，到找到第一份工作之前的這段時(shí)間。但是隨著失業(yè)失業(yè)水平的提高、以及建立獨(dú)立家庭的成本使得許多年輕的人依賴期更長(zhǎng)，“青年”的后一年齡界限一直在升高。

When carrying out its Youth Strategy， UNESCO uses different definitions of youth depending on the context.

在實(shí)施青年戰(zhàn)略時(shí)，聯(lián)合國(guó)教科文組織根據(jù)不同的情況采用了多種不同的青年定義。

For activities at international or at regional level， such as the African Youth Forum， UNESCO uses the United Nations’ universal definition.

對(duì)于例如“非洲青年論壇”等國(guó)際或地區(qū)層面的活動(dòng)，聯(lián)合國(guó)教科文組織使用的是聯(lián)合國(guó)的統(tǒng)一定義。

The UN， for statistical consistency across regions， defines ‘youth’， as those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years， without prejudice to other definitions by Member States. All UN statistics on youth are based on this definition， as illustrated by the annual yearbooks of statistics published by the United Nations system on demography， education， employment and health.

出于對(duì)所有地區(qū)統(tǒng)計(jì)一致性的考慮，聯(lián)合國(guó)定義“青年”為15至24歲人群，該定義不與其他成員國(guó)的定義相違背。根據(jù)聯(lián)合國(guó)發(fā)布的人口、教育、就業(yè)和健康系統(tǒng)的統(tǒng)計(jì)年鑒顯示，聯(lián)合國(guó)所有和青年相關(guān)的統(tǒng)計(jì)都基于這一定義。

For activities at the national level， for example when implementing a local community youth programme， “youth” may be understood in a more flexible manner. UNESCO will then adopt the definition of “youth” as used by a particular Member State. It can be based for instance on the definition given in the African Youth Charter where “youth” means “every person between the ages of 15 and 35 years”.

但是在國(guó)家層面的活動(dòng)中，例如在實(shí)施本國(guó)社會(huì)青年項(xiàng)目時(shí)，“青年”可以有更靈活的含義。此時(shí)聯(lián)合國(guó)教科文組織將采用某些特定成員國(guó)所使用的“青年”定義。例如可以使用《非洲青年憲章》中對(duì)“青年”的定義——即“15到35歲人群”。