Youth Leadership Forum: Warsaw, Poland: Democratic Institutions and Human Rights: 2days project: Apply
Deadline: 5 October 2014
Open to: youth leaders between the ages of 20 and 35 years old, from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kirgizstan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan
Venue: 13-14 November 2014 in Warsaw, Poland
Venue: 13-14 November 2014 in Warsaw, Poland
Description
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is organizing a two-day Youth Forum on 13 and 14 November 2014 in Warsaw. The Youth Forum will bring together 35 youth leaders to discuss challenges to youth political participation in the 21st century and ways to overcome these. The final outcome of the Youth Leadership Forum will be a number of recommendations on how the OSCE and its institutions can better assist participating States to meet their commitments and obligations on the inclusion of youth in democratic processes.
The Youth Leadership Forum will involve three categories of young leaders – representing leaders from the most informal structures to the most formal ones.
- Voice: This relates to informal forms of political participation and focuses on online activism. Ideal candidates include representatives of social media groups and bloggers.
- Influence: This relates to semi-formal forms of political participation and focuses on civil society organizations active in advocating and lobbying for changes to policies. We are looking for leaders who want to influence politics but do not want to do so through formal structures.
- Governance: This relates to formal mechanisms of political participation such as political parties and governance institutions. Ideal candidates are leaders such as young politicians and members of parliaments, government representatives, city councilors, policy and political advisors.
The Youth Leadership Forum will explore ways of bringing different forms of political participation closer to each other thus including youth in democratic policy work. Participants will be offered an opportunity to discuss good practices and challenges in youth political participation in the OSCE region. The Youth Leadership Forum will also offer a unique opportunity to explore and discuss the unique approach that the OSCE offers – its comprehensive cross-dimensional approach to security.
The participants will be asked to actively participate during the Youth Leadership Forum in various working groups. Moreover, selected participants will be asked to actively participate in moderated online discussions ahead of the Youth Leadership Forum. The OSCE/ODIHR reserves the right to withdraw the invitation should a selected participant fail to engage in online discussion, on a weekly basis, ahead of the seminar.
Eligibility
- Young leaders aged 20 to 35;
- Gender and geographical balance;
- Minimum 2 years of experience and proven track record of involvement and engagement within their community (i.e. involvement in the NGO sector, student’s unions, local and national political parties, online democracy and human rights associations, political parties and NGOs);
- Participants will have to submit this application form and their CV;
- Russian or English language competency
- Availability to actively and regularly participate in online discussion leading up to the Youth Leadership Forum as well as participate at the actual Youth Leadership Forum.
Costs
Accommodation and travel costs for the event will be covered by the OSCE/ODIHR.Application
Submit your application no later than 5 October 2014, 18:00 Central European Time.Please apply by sending a filled application form and Curriculum Vitae to the address youth@odihr.pl. All applicants will be asked to take part in a Skype interview. Organizers will try to reach a gender and geographical balance.
Category: Projects