A/RES/50/81 Page 5 (g) Places and facilities for cultural, recreational and sports activities to improve the living standards of young people in both rural and urban areas. 6. While the peoples of the United Nations, through their Governments, international organizations and voluntary associations, have done much to ensure that these aspirations may be achieved, including efforts to implement the guidelines for further planning and suitable follow-up in the field of youth endorsed by the General Assembly in 1985, 2/ it is apparent that the changing world social, economic and political situation has created the following conditions that have made this goal more difficult to achieve in many countries: (a) Claims on the physical and financial resources of States, which have reduced the resources available for youth programmes and activities, particularly in heavily indebted countries; (b) Inequities in social, economic and political conditions, including racism and xenophobia, which lead to increasing hunger, deterioration in living conditions and poverty among youth and to their marginalization as refugees, displaced persons and migrants; (c) Increasing difficulty for young people returning from armed conflict and confrontation in integrating into the community and gaining access to education and employment; (d) Continuing discrimination against young women and insufficient access for young women to equal opportunities in employment and education; (e) High levels of youth unemployment, including long-term unemployment; (f) Continuing deterioration of the global environment resulting from unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, particularly in industrialized countries, which is a matter of grave concern, aggravating poverty and imbalances; (g) Increasing incidence of diseases, such as malaria, the human immunodeficiency virus and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), and other threats to health, such as substance abuse and psychotropic substance addiction, smoking and alcoholism; (h) Inadequate opportunities for vocational education and training, especially for persons with disabilities; (i) Changes in the role of the family as a vehicle for shared responsibility and socialization of youth; (j) Lack of opportunity for young people to participate in the life of society and contribute to its development and well-being; (k) Prevalence of debilitating disease, hunger and malnutrition that engulfs the life of many young people; (l) Increasing difficulty for young people to receive family life education as a basis for forming healthy families that foster sharing of responsibilities. 2/ See A/40/256, annex. /...