3. – 10. April 2011, Armenia
Project summary:
The main theme of this Seminar will be strengthening the role of youth in reaching Sustainable Peace and in improvement of the processes of reconciliation.
We want to discuss, explore, conclude and promote the holistic concept and values of Sustainable Peace, and to endorse the values of Democracy and Human Rights respect as an ultimate priority of the societies.
We aim to improve the methods which will make the role of youth better in fight against violence, nationalism, chauvinism, racism, discrimination and intolerance in reconciliation processes.
We want to learn about the role of young people in Building Green, Ecological societies as a precondition for sustainability of any kind.
We will find the best way to embrace and celebrate diversity and multicultural environment as a guarantee of peace, released from prejudice and stereotypes.
Objectives:
Defining the concepts and main factors of Sustainable Peace and present the processes of Reconciliation in different European regions.
We want to explore the situation of Human rights during the conflict and post conflict – reconciliation period and find the ways how youth can fully participate and improve the condition.
We want to explore different ways of conflict transformation (or prevention) based on European Values, principles of tolerance and European experience of conflict resolution, also participants will get a knowledge about non violence principles and conflict resolution.
We want to examine the correlation between the Peace and Environment and the paths for youth for cooperation on solving common environmental issues and improving reconciliation.
We want give the participants enough knowledge in order to act as multipliers of universal values such are democracy and human rights as effective tools in conflict prevention and resolution.
We want to learn and discuss about methods that can be used to make youth participation in reconciliation processes more efficient and effective by implementing democratic way of work and human rights respect. Also, we will work on best practices how to improve implement youth participation in fight against violence, stereotypes, prejudice and intolerance.
We will provide participants with necessary tools and knowledge in order to motivate them to become active in their own local communities and to promote sustainable peace, human rights, anti-discrimination policies and social cohesion, and to be able to improve cooperation of their organizations with other organisations which are tackling peace and reconciliation issues.
This seminar will help knowledge and information flow so that young people could be better acquainted with the position of these issues in different countries in Europe and also to draw some general conclusions on them and use to improve the methods for participation.
Finally, we would like to celebrate diversity and as such make contribution to the process of cultural mixture and reconciliation on the Caucasus and present to the citizens one of the major European Values.
Methodology and planning:
The seminar is conceptualized as the combination of lectures, workshop, panel debates, educational role-play games and other different program elements, as well as promoting youth participation by means of street action. The lectures will be provided by experts from both Eastern and Western Europe having a strong experience in dealing with active participation of young people and a holistic view concerning sustainable peace, HR and environemtal issues. At the workshops we will focus on personal experiences and interactive learning while for the street action we will put into practice what we have learned.
Please briefly describe the purpose of the meeting in your organisation's short and long-term programme:
For CDN this event is great opportunity to continue our active work in the Caucasus and involve more young people from post Soviet countries into our work and generally into activities of international organizations. It is one of our prior aims to be the bridge for communication, education and understanding between young people all over Europe and with this event we are coming one step closer to realization of this task.
Implementation of this event in Armenia will help the integration of Green Youth from whole region to a big green European Family. With the event we would also like to reduce cultural gap between activist of our organization by giving them informal education, democracy training and possibility to cooperate and build connections to the future. We will work on finding reliable youth activists and organizations from Ex Ussr countries, especially Russia in order to improve our work on this geographical scope.
Follow-up to the meeting (other than a report):
During the seminar participants will work on a common statement which will represent the oppinion of the Network within the events subject. This document will later be presented to the members and partners of the CDN and will represent the standpoints of youth withing Green Organizations. Special focus will be given on Futher Project ideas development in order to ensure continuation of the Networks youth international work.
Number of participants from Council of Europe member states or signatories to the European Cultural Convention : 40
Less than 15: 0 From 15 to 30: 40 31 and more: 0
Profile of the participants and recruitment procedure:
Participation is open for young people with different backgrounds and educational level because we stress in our work importance of diversity. Youth should already be involved with different social, political, educational or economical areas of work in Eastern Europe but also it would be good to have those highly motivated to involve them selves and their organizations into these issues in their own country. Special consideration will be given to youth coming from the minority groups and the rural areas. Recruitment procedure will be based on application files and we will select applicants according to gender and geographical balance as well as their motivation and knowledge on the subject of the meeting.
