Countries' futures, the near as well as the more remote, are based on their children and youth. In many countries children and youth constitute half of the population. Children and youth will inherit the challenges and the burdens to improve and turn human settlements towards sustainability. Special attention must be paid to vulnerable children, such as street children, and street girls in particular. In the face of increasing world-wide interaction, the significance and future prospects of human settlements are rapidly changing.
Settlements can no longer exist and develop in isolation.
The prosperity of cities is closely tied to the availability of channels of interaction with the rest of the world. Settlements with competitive advantages can effectively connect to the newly emerging global network, while others are inequitably excluded from this network. Efforts at international, national and local levels are needed to restructure and improve this situation so that all women, children and men can equitably benefit from the new human settlements network opportunities. Due to the continuing and increasing number of armed conflicts, civil strife and foreign occupation, large numbers of people have been displaced and their settlements destroyed and the plight of such groups of people should be properly addressed. The issues, problems, opportunities and visions for human settlements highlighted in this Preamble give clear evidence of the rationale and importance of the Habitat II Conference.