In 1972, the Council of Europe invited young people into the organisation by establishing the ground-breaking co-managed governing structure. At the same time, the European Youth Foundation was established and has since financially supported thousands of youth-led projects for millions of young people. The European Youth Centre in Strasbourg opened its doors to young people and has since been the starting point of their advocacy work for democracy and human rights for hundreds and thousands of young people. The European Youth Centre in Budapest, the Youth Partnership with the European Commission and the intergovernmental cooperation setting youth policy standard setting complete the interconnected instruments of the Council of Europe youth sector. The birthday was celebrated looking to the future with 450 young people during the Youth Action Week of the campaign "Democracy here -democracy now". For most of the participants this was their very first contact with the Council of Europe and their collective work is reflected in 50 Action Points to ‘democratise democracy’ on national and local levels. The humongous birthday cake was cut in the spirit of the youth sector jointly by young participants, members of the Joint Council on Youth and the Secretariat, representatives of the City of Strasbourg, the Irish Presidency and the European Youth Forum. In her speech, Antje Rothemund, the Head of the Youth Department underlined the major contribution young people make in building a peaceful and cohesive Europe. She also stressed the important impact of previous youth sector campaigns such as the “all different- all equal campaign” against racism, antisemitism, xenophobia and intolerance or the No Hate Speech campaign, and underlined that with the Democracy here – democracy now campaign young people will once again raise awareness on a threat to our societies. She thanked all partners and staff, previous and present generations, for their commitment to human rights and democratic values and for making the voice of young people heard. |