A delegation of some 50 young people from more than 40 countries from all continents travelled to the Council of Europe headquarters in Strasbourg, France to contribute youth voices to the burning debate: “Democracy: A new Hope ?”.  

With democracy in decline – in distress even – these young people shared their perspectives and experience from their parts of the world, thereby adding a rich global dimension to the Forum. Several youth delegates assumed different roles as discussants and moderators in the Labs and Forum talks. For the first time in the ten-year history of the World Forum for Democracy, a youth delegate was invited to be Youth rapporteur in the closing Plenary Session.

Advisory Council members Anna Knobbout and Marko Lončar addressed the chilling effect of the shrinking space for youth civil society and presented the Committee of Ministers recommendation on protecting young people and their organisations, an initiative of the CCJ. Advisory Council Bureau member, Nedeljka Ivošević, co-chaired the reporting session with Marja Ruotanen, Director General of Democracy and Human Dignity.

The project “Voices of Young People in Ukraine” aims at amplifying the voices of young people from 5 regions of Ukraine regarding the impact of the war. During the project, young people were involved in several activities and 20 life stories were collected and shared on social media, to advocate the interests and concerns of young people in Ukraine among different stakeholders. Several meetings with local authorities were organised, during which young people could raise their voice regarding their needs.

Check out the life stories of Masha, who talks about accepting the new reality and planning for the future, about psychological support and self-fulfillment, Vlad, who talks about the value of helping his own city, of Inna who talks about how her whole life changed with the war, and Danya, who is looking for a place in society by making music. All the young people expressed their dreams and their fears for the future, during a war that has affected them deeply.

The project is implemented by Donetsk Youth Debate Centre with the support of the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe within the Youth Campaign Democracy here I Democracy now, and in partnership with 5 youth centres in Ukraine.

At the invitation of the German PACE delegation and in cooperation with the German National Youth Council (DBJR), an international conference taking place in the Bundestag in Berlin on 1-2 December 2022 discussed the role of the Council of Europe as leading institution protecting and promoting human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe.

Some 60 representatives of National Youth Councils from 25 countries had a fantastic opportunity to exchange with members of PACE on policy responses to crisis. Aydan Özoguz, Vice-president of the Bundestag, Frank Schwabe, Head of the German delegation to PACE, Antje Rothemund, Head of the Council of Europe Youth Department and Marius Schlageter, DBJR Board member opened the conference. Anastasios Chatzivasileiou, PACE Rapporteur on a “Youth Partner status” presented his proposal to increase youth participation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

The participation of young people from Belarus and Ukraine was key in the development of relevant and practical proposals and the needs and role of youth civil society in nowadays Europe. The participation of members of the Advisory Council on Youth put the spotlight on the youth contribution to the preparation of the 4th Council of Europe Summit of Heads of State and Government. 

 You can watch a summary presentation video of the Conference (4'11'')

On 20-21 October 2022, an end-of-term visit of the Council of Europe Quality Label for Youth Centres was organised in Lisbon Youth Centre, Portugal with the aim to evaluate the fulfilment of the 15 quality criteria of the Quality Label which Lisbon Youth Centre has been holding since 2015.

The Quality Label Expert Team was presented with recent initiatives and developments introduced in Lisbon Youth Centre based on the recommendations of the previous monitoring visit in 2017. Major improvements were made to modernise the youth centre in the last five years as well as to enlarge its programme of activities for youth organisation in the fields of human rights and democratic citizenship education. The end-term visit was held in the presence of representatives of the Portuguese Sport and Youth Institute (IPDJ) as well as local partners and stakeholders of the youth centre.

As a result of the visit, the Quality Label Expert Team will make its recommendation to the European Steering Committee for Youth (CDEJ) to prolong the Quality Label for Lisbon Youth Centre. The final decision will be taken at the next CDEJ meeting on 13 March 2023.

On 24 October 2022, a Quality Label exploratory visit took place in Braga Youth Centre, Portugal with the aim to introduce the work of the youth centre to Council of Europe representatives from an operational perspective, and to provide a deeper insight into its mission and educational philosophy as well as the strategic priorities of the centre.

The visit, that was organised in the presence of the Mayor of Braga, Ricardo Rio and the representatives of Braga Youth Centre, held an exchange on the youth centre’s potential of becoming a quality labelled youth centre which has been defined as one of the main objectives for Braga Youth Centre. The main mission of Braga Youth Centre is to support young people by promoting non-formal educational approaches and offering pedagogical youth programmes and quality youth work. In addition to organising residential youth activities, the Braga Youth Centre also hosts the regional services of the Portuguese Institute for Sport and Youth.

Braga Youth Centre submitted a formal application for the Council of Europe Quality Label for Youth Centres in October 2022 as the second Portuguese youth centre aspiring to be officially awarded the Quality Label. As a next step, the Quality Label expert team will make an assessment to the youth centre’s application to evaluate its fulfilment of the 15 quality criteria. In case of a positive assessment, an exploratory visit of the expert team will be planned for spring 2023.

The Council of Europe project Youth for Democracy in Ukraine – Phase II  has been going on since March 2022, in close co-operation with the Ministry of Youth and Sport of Ukraine.

Youth work: focus on recovery - The programme Trauma Informed Youth Work is implemented in co-operation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Council of Europe project on Internally Displaced Persons. In October and November Ukrainian youth centres organised educational activities for youth workers and young people based on the developed manual of the Trauma Informed Youth Work training programme.

On 16 November 2022 representatives of youth organisations took part in the information session on the European Youth Foundation special call for pilot activities in support of young people from Ukraine.

Evaluation matters! On 17 and 18 November 2022 experts participated in a workshop on evaluation of educational activities, which included modules for self-study on the e-learning platform of the Youth Department of the Council of Europe.

Strengthening capacities of Ukrainian youth NGOs for youth participation - In November a series of capacity-building workshops were organised in partnership with the NGO Youth centre “Territory of initiatives” and the NGO “Ukrainian Youth Councils Association”. These activities are to be continued in December.

The study session “Managing mental health as a refugee, asylum seeker and migrant” was organised by Voices of Young Refugees in Europe (VYRE) and Euro Youth Mental Health (EYMH) at the European Youth Centre Strasbourg from 21 to 25 November 2022. VYRE and EYMH have identified the need to increase mental health literacy of refugee and migrant youth. During the session 33 young refugees, migrants and youth workers who work in the field of migration and refugees, alongside mental health learned about:

• (mental) health and its legal framework;
• challenges on access to mental health support;
• cultural sensitivity and inclusion in the context of refugees and mental health;
• lessons learned and good practices regarding their right to mental health.

The participants had a meaningful exchange with the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Migration and Refugees – Leyla Kayacik, when they could learn about the Council of Europe work in the field of migration and refugees including its Action Plan on Protecting Vulnerable Persons in the Context of Migration and Asylum in Europe, as well as raise their concerns and questions relevant to the topic at hand.

The training course for trainers for youth in Azerbaijan (TRAYAZE) took place in Baku from 23 to 28 November. The course was organised to develop participants competences to implement quality non-formal education activities, and support youth work and youth policy development in Azerbaijan according to Council of Europe values and standards. Key concepts and practical applications of human rights education, citizenship and civic education, non-formal learning, youth work and youth policy were thus explored by the thirty-three participants.

TRAYAZE is a long-term training course, a complex capacity-building activity comprising various forms, working methods for personal development and practical experience of the participants. In addition to this seminar, the course includes e-learning, mentoring and personal development as well as a practice phase based on training projects. The course will be completed with an evaluation and consolidation seminar in Strasbourg at the end of 2023.

The activity is organised by the Council of Europe Youth Department and the Ministry of Youth and Sport of the Republic of Azerbaijan in partnership with Azerbaijan Youth Foundation and National Assembly of Youth Organisations of the Republic of Azerbaijan (NAYORA) within the Council of Europe Action Plan for Azerbaijan.