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DG Democracy
Directorate of Democratic Participation
Youth Department
THINK YOUTH No 75 - November 2019
Youth participants in the World Forum for Democracy, Council of Europe Assembly Chamber
Is democracy in danger in the information age?
Strasbourg, 6-8 November 2019

The Youth Department hosted 60 young people from 46 countries from 5 continents in order to prepare them for their participation in the World Forum for Democracy from 6-8 November on the topic of “Is democracy in danger in the information age?”. After two days of preparation in the European Youth Centre Strasbourg the youth delegation participated in a well-informed and well-prepared way. They brought a global perspective and meaningful contributions to the discussions held at the WFD.
No Hate Speech network created!
20-25 October, European Youth Centre Strasbourg

36 activists, national coordinators and representatives of campaign partner organisations gathered for a study session dedicated to their coordination and follow-up to the No Hate Speech Movement campaign. As a result, 110 activists and partners created the international No Hate Speech Network. ​It aims to co-ordinate the various activists and organisations working against hate speech, supporting partnership building and their participation in development of standards and approaches in countering hate speech. The network committed to further promote Human Rights Education online as an effective approach to countering hate speech.
Euro-Arab Youth Forum: Dialogue is possible, needed and useful
5-8 November, European Youth Centre Budapest

The 7th edition of the Euro-Arab Youth Forum was co-organised by the Council of Europe, the League of Arab States and the European Youth Forum. Entitled “Dialogue on Youth, Peace and Security” the forum brought together some 100 youth leaders and multipliers, active in intercultural dialogue and peace-building. The participants learned about the UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security and how it can support their own work. They shared experiences and learned together about human rights and skills in advocacy, campaigning, human rights education, intercultural learning, social media and sustainability. Twelve follow-up projects were prepared to support peacebuilding and dialogue by young people. Recommendations to the organisers about the future of the co-operation were also made.
Take a look at the video recap of the forum.
Visits of LTTC projects for young refugees
The long-term training course Youth.Together seeks to reduce the risks of social exclusion and violence that young refugees, especially minors in transition to adulthood are exposed to, and supports their social inclusion and access to education, their self‐development and autonomy through youth work and non‐formal education activities. Following the first training course in November, participants implemented local youth work activities. Three of these have been visited by representatives of the organising team and statutory bodies of the Youth Department: Not alone in Europe (Sweden); We talk project (Malta) and the Arte Migrante project (France).
End of term evaluation visit of the Quality Label Expert Team
EurÓg Youth Centre, Killarney, Ireland is awarded the Quality label for 2020-2024

The EurÓg Youth Centre was visited by the Council of Europe to assess the fulfilment of the 15 criteria of the Council of Europe Quality Label for Youth Centres, which the centre holds since 2017.
EurÓg main mission is to empower young people by enabling them to acquire the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary for their well-being and for the enrichment of their communities.
During the visit the centre’s staff and young people presented initiatives on human rights education with young people.
Drafting group starts work on Committee of Ministers’ recommendation on youth civil society
Strasbourg, 14-15 November 2019

During its first meeting, the drafting group made a good start on defining the possible content of a future draft Committee of Ministers’ recommendation on ‘protecting youth civil society organisations and young people and supporting their participation in democratic processes’. The drafting group was created by the Joint Council on Youth (CMJ) to follow up on its thematic debate on “shrinking space for civil society and youth organisations: contemporary challenges and solutions” (March 2018) and on a consultative meeting on the impact of the shrinking space on young people and their organisations (November 2018). The group will meet several times during the course of 2020 and hopes to present a final proposal for a draft CM recommendation to the CMJ for adoption in March 2021.
Youth Work Recommendation: now also in Italian!
APICE (Associazione per l’Incontro delle Culture in Europa) in cooperation with the Department of Youth and the Universal Civil Service of the Italian Government has published the Committee of Ministers Recommendation on Youth Work in Italian.
This should play an important role in the promotion and recognition of youth work in Italy.
Discussing ways to implement the recommendation was one of the highlights of the event "Campania Youth Empowered - Conscious and Connected Youth Policies", organised in Naples by the Regional Youth Forum of Campania last 29 October.
Young unionists and migrants: Human Rights at work for all!
11-15 November, EYC Strasbourg

The study session “Young unionists and migrants: Mutual learning for guaranteeing fundamental rights at work for all” explored ways to strengthen the role of trade unions in the social inclusion of young migrants and refugees. Thirty members of Voices of Young Refugees in Europe (VYRE) and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) devised projects on strengthening the access to employment for young refugees. They learned about access to social rights, the European Social Charter and ECRI and the new CM Recommendation on supporting young refugees in transition to adulthood.
Youth Peace Camp follow up activities
The Youth Peace Camps are now organised every two years to give more space for structured and properly supported follow-up. Two pilot projects recently took place, implemented by participants in previous camps: 
- the training course “Bridges of Peace” (Leposavic, Kosovo, 1-5 November) organised by the NGO Local Peace gathered young people from Albanian and Serbian communities to prepare them to become advocates of human peace and inclusion.
- the project “Invest in Youth Cyprus” (Cyprus, 16-17 November) organised in co-operation with the Association for Historical Dialogue & Research gathered Greek and Turkish Cypriot and focused on human rights education, identity and conflict transformation.
Both activities used the experience gained at the international setting of the Youth Peace Camps and offered interactive activities from Council of Europe manuals such as COMPASS and the Training Kits Youth transforming conflict and Intercultural Learning.
News from the EYF
At its October meeting in Strasbourg, the Joint Council on Youth adopted the focus themes for pilot activities in 2020: Access to rights; Youth work and youth participation and Inclusive and peaceful societies.
In November, the EYF Secretariat visited a pilot project it funded, aimed at strengthening capacities of youth workers from Thessaloniki and surrounding areas.
Strengthening youth work in Eastern Europe
Tbilisi, Georgia, 27-28 November

About 60 youth work practitioners and managers, trainers and related profiles, youth workers’ organisations, youth organisations, policy makers especially from Eastern Europe and other European countries reflected on the diverse realities of youth work in Eastern Europe, and on how to foster a better matching of its needs and those of the young people with the reality of youth policy on a regional level, and with consideration for European institutional developments.
Edu4Europe - Education for European democratic citizenship forum: “Future visions of Europe”
About 100 practitioners from the youth and education fields, researchers, policy makers, civil society organisations, and other entities involved in European democratic citizenship education looked at directions the European policies may take, and how to involve young people in shaping this European future through educational processes.
Research on youth is becoming increasingly recognised as an indispensable companion of effective, impactful policy and practice; this publication helps the reader to gain a better and immediate understanding of the purpose, scope and usefulness of research on youth.
Expert meeting ‘Reflection on youth policy evaluation’
On 7 November we held an expert reflection on 2019 study of how youth policy evaluation happens in different countries in Europe. The preliminary findings and first draft of the study are available on the Youth Partnership website.
Upcoming activities
  • 25 November-1 December, Compass Long-term Training Course on Human Rights Education in Ukraine, Kyiv region
  •  4-6 December, Artificial Intelligence and its Impact on Young People, European Youth Centre Strasbourg
  • 9-10 December, Workshop on Remembrance and human rights education with young people, European Youth Centre Strasbourg
  • 10 December, Human Rights Day – Celebration of the 70 years anniversary of the Council of Europe, European Youth Centre Budapest
  • 12-13 December, 42nd meeting of the Programming Committee on Youth, European Youth Centre Budapest
  • 12-13 December, Steering Group of the European Platform on Learning Mobility-EPLM, Cologne, Germany
  • 13 December, Brussels, Partnership Management Board
  • 16-17 December, Evaluation of the National Training Courses in Human Rights Education, European Youth Centre Strasbourg
Useful links
The CoE Directorate General Democracy
The CoE Youth Portal
European Youth Centre Budapest
European Youth Centre Strasbourg
European Youth Foundation
Intergovernmental Cooperation
The EU-CoE Youth Parthership
Facebook pages
Advisory Council on Youth
Council of Europe - Youth
European Youth Centre Budapest
EU-CoE youth partnership
European Youth Foundation
No Hate Speech Movement
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