Dear friends,

please find below my report and feel free to contact me for any further
explanation or comment.

ciao,
Isabella

--------------------------
ORIENTATION SEMINAR ON SEE
European Youth Centre, Strasbourg, 9-14 May 2000.

About 30 people representing youth NGOs and NYCs coming from SEE or active
in the region have been invited by Mr.Lasse Siurala, Youth Director of the
CoE (Directorate of Youth and Sports), to attend this Orientation Seminar.

This seminar has contributed to confidence building between different actors
in the region, particularly representatives of youth organisations and other
NGOs from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The main aim of the seminar was to exchange experiences among all
participants in order to define an "action plan for SEE" for developing
youth policies and projects in the region.
The Orientation Seminar will have a second phase in early 2001 (preparatory
meeting to be held in Autumn 2000).

1. STABILITY PACT & ACTION PLAN

Mr. Peter Lauritzen (CoE), co-ordinator of the working group on Young
People, explained us the Stability Pact and the Action Plan.

Stability Pact in SEE: it constitutes an international instrument for
fostering democratic and economical stability in the region.
More information available at:   www.stabilitypact.org

The Stability Pact operates through the Ministries of Foreign Affairs.

After a global overview on this Pact we focused on the Youth Field, taking
into account that in the end of 1999 a "Working Group on Young People" was
established and the European Youth Forum (YFJ) is a member.

This working group is co-ordinated by Mr. Peter LAURITZEN.
The Working Group on Young People is part of the Task Force "Education and
Youth of the enhanced Graz process".
More information available at  www.see-educoop.net

SEE Action Plan of the CoE: the CoE Secretariat started to work on that in
April '99.
Later on a WG of the Joint Council called "Monitoring Group for SEE of the
Advisory Council and CDEJ" has been established.
The main aim of this working group is to monitor the CoE Youth Sector
contribution to the Stability Pact.

The CoE refused for a long time to have a regional policy approach, but two
years ago everything changed and nowadays regional policies are more than
welcomed.

The instruments used by the CoE for developing this Action Plan are:

- the Orientation Seminar on SEE (our seminar!);
- the creation of a South East Youth Centre in Ohrid, Macedonia (mainly for
training activities);
- the ADACS program (50% of the program is going to SEE and training courses
and workshops will be run in SEE);
- the national reports on youth situations: at present the Romanian one is
under preparation;
- pilot projects on SEE funded by the EYF/CoE; these projects can be
financed faster and regionally;
- a Long Term Training Course for youth leaders in SEE.

2. MAIN TRENDS OF THE ACTIVITIES: DIFFICULTIES & OPPORTUNITIES

The activities currently organised by NOGs are dealing with:
youth exchanges, trainings, festivals, small local projects, internet clubs
and media oriented projects (magazines etc.) and so on.

Main DIFFICULTIES:
- indifference, disbelief in the own capacity or the impact of NGOs;
- hard visa regulation;
- propaganda and lack of free and independent information;
- lack of funding and also funding oriented organisations and projects;
- international organisations "killing" local NGOs initiative by taking over
the initiative or pushing local NGOs into following the agenda of the
international organisations;
- feeling of isolation (especially in Yugoslavia);
- lack of knowledge about Europe;
- rural areas differencies (most NGOs and projects centered in cities,
nothing in rural areas);
- scepticism among young people to new things or NGOs initiatives.

Main OPPORTUNITIES:
- to organise as many  youth exchanges as possible in order to overcome
isolation;
- to foster mobility;
- young people can be given a chance to meet their own needs;
- there is a scope for impact and change since so little already exist;
- young people can set their own agenda and be actors in promoting i.e. a
youth policy at local level;
- to ease visa regulations;
- intercultural learning.

3. TOLERANCE, HUMAN RIGHTS & INTERCULTURAL LEARNING

TOLERANCE:
More focused on national minorities but also different religions, disabled
people etc. have to be taken into consideration.

Romania: there's a department for Minorities at the State level. Money from
the state budget goes to different national minorities.
148 Roma organisations are recognised as official partners towards
government and international organisations.
Minorities want to keep their own languages and traditions, to have school
classes in their own languages, to get more places at the universities etc.

Hungary: many national minorities as well.

Macedonia: multiethnic society. All different ethnic groups know each other
very well. But there is still a lack of acceptance.
This is due to the fact that in the communist society nobody could be
different and the stereotype of the so-called "normal person" continues
nowadays.

In the communist society disabled people were isolated. A family with
disabled children was excluded and considered as a "pariah".
This situation is still continuing especially at "psychological" level.

Vojvodina (YU): many different nationalities are living together.

The CIVIL SOCIETY was not developed 10 years ago and it's still weak and in
many cases "under construction".

ECONOMICAL SITUATION:
10 years ago the job was provided by the State in all the communist countries.
Now it's a real "fight for surviving".
The rate of unemployment is very high in the whole SEE region.
In Yugoslavia people were used to better living conditions compared to other
communist countries, and now...
Many international organisations and big firms are willing to help SEE but
sometimes it's just for their interest and it could become dangerous...

EDUCATION is a very important tool in order to improve tolerance.
Peer education, non-formal education and intercultural learning have to be
fostered.

A new approach towards tolerance, acceptance and human rights is needed in
the whole region, and in the countries not directly involved in the was as well.

4. ACTION PLAN DEVELOPMENT
-MOBILITY:
To support the mobility in South East Europe, by providing availability and
access to the youth programs and activities for all countries in the region.
To start the dialogue with the purpose of establishing good working
relations between the local NGOs and the foreign embassies.

-BALANCED APPROACH of LOCAL and REGIONAL INITIATIVES:
To recognise the importance of local activities as well as multilateral
projects, in order to achieve a balanced development of the region. The
multilateral projects should have a direct positive impact on the youth work
on local level. Having in mind the importance of the regional connections,
the emphasis should be put on the work in the local communities and to
improve the local youth involvement.

- INTERACTION BETWEEN INGOs and LOCAL NGYOs:
To stimulate the co-ordination and collaboration among local NGYOs, regional
and international organisations and institutions.

- NATIONAL UMBRELLA STRUCTURES:
To support national umbrella organisations and national youth networks, to
provide them with all necessary administrative support and to answer their
capacity needs.
To accept the local and national youth councils as partners in the process
of the stabilisation of the region.
To support the establishment of youth centres as a youth friendly places in
the local communities which can serve as training and youth information centres.
To expand the scope of the work of the European Youth Centre Network (ERYCA)
in the region of SEE in the establishing phase.

- HUMAN CAPACITY BUILDING PROCESS:
To improve the human capacity building process by organising training for
youth leaders and youth workers in the region.
To liberate resources of INGOs at the local level for the long term benefit
of the young people.

- MUNICIPAL YOUTH POLICY:
To initiate the creation of local authorities youth policy in the areas
where such a policy does not exist and to stimulate the already existing
initiatives from the local governing bodies.

- EMPLOYMENT:
To provide the facilities for the young people to create economic and
employment opportunities for themselves through local, national and
international support by seed funding and appropriate training and
consultancy opportunities.

- DISSEMINATION of KNOWLEDGE and EXPERIENCE:
To recognise the good functioning youth structures in the region and to
provide them with the possibility to spread their knowledge and experience
to other youth organisations and young people.

- PRESERVE EXISTING STRUCTURES:
To rely on, preserve and respect all existing structures, contacts and
organisations in the region and to involve them in the regional
stabilisation process.
To create a directory of already existing organisations, networks and
programs with the inclusion of possible donors and sponsors.

- OMBUDSMAN ON YOUTH:
To establish an ombudsman on youth as a mechanism of protecting young
people's rights.

- EDUCATION:
There is no concept of education for citizenship in the region.
To promote the participation in formal education, promote the participation
of pupils and students in school/university management.
This gives the youth the opportunity to really influence their environment,
teach them to be socially active but also teach "adults" that they are not
the only ones who should make decisions.
But formal education is not enough, people need also to have practice
concerning participation and in that way schools must not take the role of
NGOs, youth organisations, etc.
To promote non formal education.
This is still a strange concept in the region, although the non formal
education is probably the most effective way of learning, especially in the
field of education for citizenship.
To educate young people and warn them about mafia, human trafficking,
corruption.
To promote healthy life styles, good values.
Teacher training is essential as well.
----------------

*************************
Isabella Casartelli
YFJ/CoE Commission
AEGEE Genova
tel: +39-010-645 32 82
email: [log in to unmask]
*************************

 =============================================================================
MISC-REG-L is hosted on aegeeserv courtesy of AEGEE-Karlsruhe. Check out
http://www.aegee.uni-karlsruhe.de/archives for the archives of public lists.
To unsubscribe send 'unsubscribe MISC-REG-L' to [log in to unmask]