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DG Democracy
Directorate of Democratic Participation
Youth Department
THINK YOUTH No 86 - November 2020
Germany takes over Presidency from Greece
Five priorities relevant for young people in Europe

Germany holds the Presidency of our Committee of Ministers for the next six months and we look forward to working together; visit the brand new page of the Presidency to read about its priorities. 

Germany will support and promote the Council of Europe’s outstanding and participative activities in youth policy and facilitate the exchange of ideas between young people and youth workers. The 3rd European Youth Work Convention in December 2020 will be a key event that will invite people active in youth policy and youth work in Europe – the so-called youth work community of practice – to exchange ideas on establishing and implementing the European Youth Work Agenda.
Artificial Intelligence: How can Youth take part?
23-27 November, online meeting

A seminar entitled “Artificial intelligence: How can youth take part?” held by the Youth Department in the framework of the German Presidency of the Council of Europe looked at the link between AI and democratic citizenship, youth participation in AI, and discussed the hopes placed on the Artificial Intelligence, as well as fears and concerns related to human rights, ethical issues and reliability of technologies.

What young people need to know to feel part of the social, technological and political processes around AI, and how public and private actors in AI should allow for participation of young people as the digital natives, will be the two key questions of the event.
The role of the European Youth Card in promoting the rights of young people in post COVID era
5-6 November 2020, Athens and online

A webinar “New challenges and opportunities for innovative youth services. The role of the European Youth Card in promoting the rights of young people in post COVID era” was held under the Greek Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers.

The Greek Chairmanship has declared youth one of its priorities, and this event is the key event in the field of youth held under the Chairmanship.

Niki Kerameus, Greek Minister of Education and Religious Affairs; Georgios Voutsinos, Secretary General for Vocational Education, Training and Lifelong Learning, Antje Rothemund, Head of the Youth Department of the Council of Europe, Ivan Hromada, Chair of the Steering Committee for Youth of the Council of Europe, and Manel Sanchez, Director, European Youth Card Association were among the speakers at the opening of the event.

The webinar brought together representatives of NGO, youth activists and government officials. They discussed themes such as supporting young people, including youth workers and students, during the pandemic and carrying our digital youth work to help build resilient communities. The role of young people using the European Youth Card under the Council of Europe Partial agreement on youth mobility was a special priority for the event.
Mosaic of the Youth Centres awarded the Council of Europe Quality Label for Youth Centres or aspiring candidates
11th European Platform for Youth Centres in the Quality Label network
Directors, managers and staff of youth centres gathered online to hold an in-depth exchange on the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic

The European Platform for Youth Centres is organised annually in order to encourage professional knowledge sharing among youth centres recognised with the Quality Label and those aspiring to its acquisition. With the attendance of more than 60 participants from 20 youth centres, this year’s meeting was exceptionally held online on 19-20 November as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This year’s edition of the Platform meeting was dedicated to the impacts of the pandemic crisis on quality labelled youth centres. The meeting provided space for managers and other key staff of youth centres to exchange on initiatives and innovative approaches to respond to the challenges caused by the pandemic, to share good practices how to shape new youth workspaces and develop digital youth work, and to identify support and partnership in this endeavour.
Learning Together Online for Euro-Arab dialogue
As a follow-up to the 7th Euro-Arab Youth Forum, the Council of Europe and the League of Arab States are running an online training course on Human Rights Education and Youth Participation. The course brings together youth leaders from some 30 countries who started learning together online from 2 November until 15 December.

The online course promotes dialogue and mutual learning for youth leaders from the Council of Europe and League of Arab States on applying human rights education to address and improve youth participation and empowerment. The course contains 5 modules hosted on the Council of Europe’s e-learning platform as well as 3 webinars where the participants will have a chance to exchange about the work of the two institutions on Human Rights Education and Youth Participation in both regions.
De Hoge Rielen Youth Centre receives Council of Europe Quality Label for Youth Centres award
De Hoge Rielen Youth Centre in Kasterlee, Belgium has been awarded the Council of Europe’s Quality Label for Youth Centres for the period 2020-2022 and thus became the 14th youth centre to be honoured.

The European Steering Committee for Youth (CDEJ) decided to award the Quality Label to de Hoge Rielen Youth Centre for the outstanding approach to connect young people to nature and sustainability by offering a wide range of pedagogical youth programmes.

The universal human rights and democratic values are deeply rooted in the centre’s philosophy. The model work of the centre to develop a strategic vision for a youth centre, its professional management of all resources including human resources, and the commitment of staff is an example of good practice for other youth centres.
Human Rights Matter, a Road to Equality!
Compass training course in Armenia

The National Training Course on Human Rights Education took place in the TNAC Youth Centre, Vayk, Armenia.

Young activists from the southern part of Armenia learned about fundamental human rights and values and discussed how human rights education can support youth participation. A specific attention was paid to Human Rights during pandemics and war. The second part of the course was dedicated to exploring COMPASS and other manuals published by the Council of Europe and implement COMPASS activities.

The participants concluded by designing five follow up activities that they will implement early 2021. The course, part of the Youth for Democracy programme was implemented by Solution Hub.
Back To School - online study session with the Erasmus Student Network
The Erasmus Student Network (ESN) in cooperation with the European Youth Centre Budapest organised an online study session from 11 to 15 November 2020,
with the aim of promoting proactive and participatory attitudes, global civic engagement and intercultural dialogue among young people. The session deepened participants understanding of intercultural learning, human rights and global citizenship, providing an insight into wider context and perspective of their engagement in the activities of ESN and the relevant work and resources in the Council of Europe Youth Department. The activity also contributed to raising their motivation for active engagement and helped them to develop personal action plans for multiplying the results of the session.
Ukrainian Human Rights trainers meet online
Webinar for the participants of the Long-term training for trainers in Human Rights Education in Ukraine, 17-19 November 2020.

The participants shared and reflected on their practice projects and worked on mapping projects, challenges, outcomes and impact.

The webinar was also a space to share practices of online Human Rights Education and conduct peer workshops. The participants also had a chance to revise their learning plans and reflect on the learning outcomes which they managed to acquire in the past year. They were also provided with mentoring support in the frame of Youth for democracy in Ukraine project. During the webinar, they learned more about the project and the possibilities to work together with the Council of Europe in promoting Human Rights and youth participation at the local level in Ukraine.
Remembrance & Learning from World War II
International online seminar,30 Nov.-4 Dec 2020

Event on the occasion of the 75 years of the end of the Second World War and of the 70th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The seminar brought together 50 participants with experience working on Remembrance topics with young people. The seminar aimed at strengthening the relevance and quality of Remembrance work with young people while promoting peace, human rights and intercultural dialogue.
Youth department resources: Just published
And new linguistic versions also available

COMPASS-manual for human rights education: a revised and updated edition of COMPASS has just been published. This 2020 edition is enriched with a new preface by the Secretary General, Marija Pejčinović Burić, has new content related to the Agenda 2030 and SDGs. With these changes Compass is now ready for 2020 and onwards. The new edition is accessible online at www.coe.int/compass where it can also be downloaded. The paper version can be ordered at https://book.coe.int/en/

- German version: Youth work in the spotlight-Guide to Recommendation CM/Rec(2017)4 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to member States on youth work. Consult here >> 

- German version: Taking it seriously-Guide to Recommendation CM/Rec(2015)3 on the access of young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods to social rights. Consult here >> 

- Russian version: Right to Remember-A Handbook for Education with Young People on the Roma Genocide. Consult here >>

- Arabic version: Bookmarks-A manual for combating hate speech online through human rights education. Consult here >>
News from the European Youth Foundation
In November, the EYF team organised two virtual visits to granted projects: an online conference held by WYAE
World Youth Alliance Europe entitled 'Youth for Women’s Health and Rights' aiming to empower youth, with a focus on young women, by promoting better understanding of Human Rights and accessing relevant information. 44 participants from 13 countries attended the 5-day event.

The EYF also visited the ‘Peace in practice’ online seminar organised by SCI, Service Civil International and attended by 30 young people.  The activity focused on connecting the concept of peace with the participants daily lives – in line with SCI’s work plan’s overall aim to build capacity of young people and partner organizations as peace envoys and actors for change. Great examples of non-formal education activities online were used by the NGOs: the organisers put in place interactive sessions and diverse tools to keep participants active and engaged; they also formed trusting groups to allow sharing of experience and reflection.
Youth Partnership launches Knowledge HUB
COVID-19 IMPACT ON THE YOUTH SECTOR

EU-Council of Europe Youth Partnership explores the various effects of the pandemic on young people through their research networks and supports the partner institutions and other stakeholders in data collection and analysis of their findings.
Illustration by Mireille van Bremen for EU-CoE youth partnership
The recently launched Knowledge HUB is a reference section to research and knowledge development on the issue.The new page highlights research and knowledge gathering initiatives that look at the two sides of the pandemic impact: challenges for the youth sector and positive initiatives.
Upcoming activities
  • 1st December 2020, Management Board meeting of the EU-CoE Partnership in the field of youth
  • 2-4 December 2020, online, Statutory bodies (CMJ/CDEJ/CCJ/CPJ), 44th meeting of the Programming Committee on Youth
  • 7-10 December 2020, online, 3rd European Youth Work Convention, hosted by the German Ministry responsible for youth
  • 7-11 December, Training-seminar "50/50" for specialists from local and regional authorities and NGOs from the Russian Federation working with young people, Ryazan (Russian Federation
  • 11 December 2020, online: Management Committee for Cooperation between the Council of Europe and the Russian Federation in the field of youth policy
  • 15 December 2020, Visit of the Secretary General to Hungary marking the 25th Anniversary of the European Youth Centre Budapest
  • 20-24 December 2020,Training-seminar on meaningful youth participation for members of youth governments and youth parliaments from the Russian Federation, Kazan, Russian Federation
 
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
Coyote magazine
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