IFLRY

IFLRY goes to Kiev to meet with Youth Ministers to talk about youth policy.

iflry — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:44:00 GMT

Sarah recently attended the European Youth Forum- Youth Event and the 8th Conference of European Ministers responsible for Youth, 8-11 October 2008 in Kiev, Ukraine.

***

I recently attended the European Youth Forum- Youth Event and the 8th Conference of European Ministers responsible for Youth, 8-11 October 2008 in Kiev, Ukraine.

The youth event prior was attended by many young people representing different international Youth Non-Governmental Organisations and National Youth Councils. The event prior represented a great opportunity to network and work along side other organizations who promote youth work.

The Council of European meeting saw Ministers responsible for Youth from across the region set a declaration illustrating "The future of the Council of Europe youth policy: AGENDA 2020" which stated that they "are committed to actively promote, in all the member states of the Organisation, the development of youth policies which are likely to result in the successful integration of all young people into society."

The declaration listed priority headings such as:

Human rights and democracy (with a new dimension added for promoting awareness education and action amongst young people on environment and sustainable development)
Living together in diverse societies
Social inclusion of young people

With this message, the young people were asking the Ministers for a co-management system to be considered, that young people be included in the development and implementation of policies for young people.

The Conference was an example of a lot of talking…so now we need to see that states follow up and are successful with the integration of the declaration. Many of the youth representatives asked how they [as ministers] were to follow up from this declaration…and the response was not clear. It was also noted that it's one thing to talk about integration and intergenerational dialogue, but it's an other to engage in it....

Pictures of the event

For more information from the Council of Europe

IFLRY goes for Advisory Council

Jelena_Serbia — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:38:00 GMT

Dear IFLRY Members,

I would like to inform you that I am standing as IFLRY candidate in the election of the Advisory Council (AC) of the Council of Europe (CoE), which will be taking place at the upcoming European Youth Forum (YFJ) General Assembly in Rotterdam, the Netherlands on 14. November 2008.

On behalf of the IFLRY Bureau, I am responsible for following the work and policies of the CoE and the YFJ. I have had the opportunity to attend the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Meetings and the meetings of the INGO, which has given me an insight into the work of CoE and also INGO work within CoE. Last year, I had the opportunity to attend two Advisory Council meetings as substitute and a CoE DYS Summer School, which was a great opportunity for me to familiarize myself with all current policies and development processes in the Directorate of Youth and Sport. These experiences have provided me with an understanding of the structure and work of the CoE related to the youth sector, which is very relevant to the work of the AC.

I always had an enormous interest and respect for the Council of Europe as the institution which actively promotes Human Rights Education. I think it is important to invest in a structural youth policy and active youth organizations and I believe that IFLRY needs to show an active profile in this forum. I see my membership in the AC as a great possibility to help in the development of youth policies and as an opportunity to integrate liberal views in to those policies.
I expect the position to be highly challenging and I know I am ready to make the best out of it and I believe that I will represent IFLRY in the best possible way.

If you have suggestions for me or you need more info please contact me jelena@iflry.org.

Jelena

PACE – the case of Georgia, development and democracy in Cyprus and Bosnia and Herzegovina

iflry — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:34:00 GMT

Keeping yourself on the right track – or we should say in the right corridor is definitely an issue when visiting the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe in Strasbourg. Keeping the main agenda in mind also turned out to be a challenge for the delegates attending the meeting in question – due to delaying quarrels about the order of matters. I kept longing for more drastic actions and more belief in the values these delegates are to hand over to our generation one day.

The fourth part of the 2008 Ordinary Session of the PACE was held in Strasbourg the 29September to 3 October. I had the honour of assisting at the ALDE group meetings and was thereby also welcome to view the plenary discussions. I also met with delegates from Azerbaijan, discussed life and politics with young liberal initiators from Belarus and took part in a dinner celebrating a hopefully growing Finnish-Polish cooperation.

Monday started with an ALDE group meeting, where a new young initiative for a liberal party in Belarus was introduced by Pavel Morozau, the Leader of Belarusian Ruch International - a network of new generation leaders for democratic Belarus. Also, ALDE enjoyed the visit from the former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and leader of the “People’s Democratic Union”, Mr. Mikhail Kasyanov. During his visit, Kasyanov expressed his concerns for democracy in the Russian Federation, the sliding towards totalitarianism and the present as well as possible future aggression. Kasyanov discussed the case of Georgia and pointed to the similarities to Sevastopol – the demilitarization of military bases and Russian territorial claims on the Crimean peninsula. The Russian irritation recently shown towards Ukraine was also an active topic during Kasyanov’s press conference at the PACE. Kasyanov called on ALDE and the PACE to condemn the Russian actions in Georgia. Mátyás Eörsi, President of ALDE, also presented his views on the Georgian conflict as a co-Rapporteur for the monitoring of Georgia and member of the PACE delegation that visited Moscow and Tblisi in September. On Wednesday, the result of a thorough investigation in Georgia carried out by Human Rights Watch was presented to ALDE – pointing to discrimination of the human rights on both sides and a need for intervention. The group failed to reach a unison conclusion for action in the conflict and the final decision of the PACE, to put the Georgia conflict under further investigation before taking any further actions against either part in the conflict, was in deed disappointing.

The main focus during the Tuesday sessions was on the development in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Cyprus. The concern regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina was that the necessary constitutional reforms have yet not been executed, resulting in ethnical prerogatives still creating political hinders. On Cyprus, a final solution has still not been reached though both parties are showing real commitment to reunification – especially Mr. Demetris Christofias, President of the Republic of Cyprus, and Mr. Talat Leader of the Turkish Cypriot Community, both speakers at the PACE. The same terminology is used on both sides, yet numbers are working against a solution – the Turkish Cypriot community, 20 per cent of the total population, insists on an equal sharing of powers, while the Greek Cypriot population favor a relative representation at a shared government which in turn does not add up to the Turkish Cypriot expectations. A lasting solution is however in the hopes of all parties.

On the agenda of my last day at the PACE, Wednesday, was the refreshing of the youth agenda of Council of Europe – which was discussed in a circle Joint Councils on Tuesday evening. Both delegates from the PACE and the youth organizations present cherished the important role of CoE in Human Rights Education and described a will to maintain the important work carried out by the European Youth Centers but, yet a certain worry for future funding was present in the discussion.

Personally I enjoyed observing the climate at this event and I am thankful for the experience and contacts gained, but my confidence in world politics and an indisputability of law and human rights (in practice) was sadly to some extent lost in the corridors of Council of Europe.

Belarus: Released, but Still Imprisoned

Bart — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:27:00 GMT

On September 28th, the Belarussian citizens are going to cast their ballots for the parliamentary elections. Whether this will have any effect on the outcome of the vote is of course always doubtful in the 'last dictatorship of Europe'. At previous elections, hopes for some democratic progress have always been shattered by obvious and widespread vote-rigging and unequal opportunities for rivals of the governing clique, not just at the election day but particularly so in the run-up to the elections. Judged in terms of media neutrality, registration of opposition candidates or the inclusion of representatives of the opposition in the electoral commission, the upcoming election does not seem to become any improvement at all.

Nevertheless, at least superficially, some things do seem to have changed recently. Quite remarkable was the sudden release of former Presidential candidate Alexander Kazulin, as well as that of two other political prisoners that had been imprisoned on political grounds. Also, a shift has been observed in the attitude of the regime of President Lukashenka vis-a-vis the West. When speaking at the European Parliament last week while representing a signifant amount of democratic forces in Belarus, Mr. Kazulin believed that these were signs that the current government "is tired of being at war with enemies it itself had helped to create".

There are also other explanations to be given. With Mr. Kazulin's release in August, his chances of staging a convincing campaign for the elections were already very low. In addition, with an opposition that is unfortunately still not sufficiently united, throwing Mr. Kazulin into the arena might actually result in a more chaotic situation. A different rationale was given by the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies in a report titled 'The Game with Risen Stakes: Official Minsk's Quest for Legitimization in the Context of the Geopolitical Mess in the Region'. They argue that the Belarusian's warming up to the West could also be partly the result of the growing tension between the West and Belarus' political friend, the Kremlin, "nudging Russia towards more lenient deals on energy price issues by threatening with 'normalization' of relations with the West".

Either way, whether the Belarusian prefers West over East, the other way around, or neither, it should first and foremost start respecting the basic and universal principles of freedom and democracy. In that respect, the release of political prisoners means nothing if the elections in which they are supposed to play a role remain rigged.

IFLRY fue elegida como miembro del Comité Directivo del FLAJ

Paola — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:51:00 GMT

Durante la última Asamblea General del FLAJ (Foro Latinoamericano de Juventud) realizada en Panamá, IFLRY fue elegida por primera vez como miembro del Comité Directivo y fue asignada a la Vocalía de Fortalecimiento Institucional. Este es otro paso que damos en el aumento de la visibilidad y la relevancia de la Federación y de los jóvenes liberales en el continente Latinoamericano. Además de lo anterior, las actividades políticas y formativas que se llevan a cabo en FLAJ, también nos permitirán continuar con el mejoramiento y fortalecimiento de IFLRY y JULIA en este continente.

En la Asamblea General de Uruguay en 2006, IFLRY fue aceptada como miembro pleno del Foro, y desde ese momento hemos venido trabajando en el desarrollo de esta plataforma regional y en su influencia en temas de mucha importancia como es el derecho a la libertad de expresión de los jóvenes en esta parte del mundo. Nuestra principal responsabilidad en la Vocalía de Fortalecimiento Institucional es tratar de iniciar y desarrollar plataformas nacionales de juventud en todos los países de América Latina como una forma de promover los derechos de los jóvenes en los diferentes países.

Este nuevo triunfo de IFLRY es también una oportunidad para continuar difundiendo los valores liberales y fortaleciendo una perspectiva liberal desde los jóvenes en este continente, donde todos sabemos que existen muchas restricciones en derechos básicos como la libertad de expresión y la libertad de pensamiento. Además, esto se convierte en una nueva fuente de actividades y le da la oportunidad a la Federación de trabajar más de cerca con las organizaciones socias y de contacto en los países donde los derechos individuales están continuamente amenazados y en muchos casos ni siquiera están garantizados.

Adicionalmente a este proceso IFLRY ha venido promoviendo el establecimiento de una nueva plataforma Iberoamericana en un esfuerzo conjunto con otras organizaciones internacionales con presencia en América Latina, así como algunos consejos de juventud. Este escenario será presentado en Octubre durante la Cumbre Iberoamericana de Jefes de Estado que se realizará en El Salvador.

IFLRY elected as bureau member of FLAJ

Paola — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:21:00 GMT

During the last General Ordinary Assembly of FLAJ (Latin American Youth Forum) held in Panama, IFLRY was elected for the first time as member of the bureau and was appointed as Commissioner of Institutional Strengthening. This is a further step in the increasing visibility of the Federation and young liberalism across the Latin American continent. The political and training activities held by the Forum also work to improve and develop IFLRY and JULIA throughout.

In FLAJ’s General Assembly of Uruguay in 2006, IFLRY was accepted as full member and ever since we have been working on the development of this regional platform and its influence on the core liberal values such as freedom of speech for youth. Our main responsibility as Commissioner of Institutional Strengthening is to try to develop national platforms all along the Latin American continent as a way of promoting youth rights in the different countries.

This new success and engagement for IFLRY is another opportunity to spread liberal values and further a young liberal perspective on this continent, where we all know there is a huge number of restrictions on rights like freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Also, it is a new source of activities and gives the Federation the chance to work closely with partners in those countries where individual rights are challenged and in some cases not even granted.

Alongside this process IFLRY has been promoting the establishment of a new Ibero-American platform together with several international youth organizations and youth councils. This scenario will be presented in October at the Iberoamerican Summit held in El Salvador.

Liberal Web Team Launched

Bart — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:05:00 GMT

IFLRY is now also expanding in cyberspace. A Liberal Web Team has been formed by six young liberals from different parts of the world: John Jaisey (Ghana), Tuomo Jarvela (Finland), Jeff Leanna (United States), Aleyda Ortega (Colombia), Lazaro Ramirez (Colombia) and Bart Woord (Netherlands - IFLRY Bureau). The LWT has as its objective to promote IFLRY and the young liberal message at large on the Internet, the biotope of an ever increasing part of the world's youth population. While the LWT's work scope is wide, the first projects that are currently prioritized concern the strengthening of IFLRY's (active) presence on several social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) and the various ways of increasing the visitor rate to our website, e.g. by improving the news feature of the Liberal News Center. An IFLRY YouTube channel is also under construction.

Being part of an IFLRY team is a great experience of combining valuable work for the liberal cause with the possibility of getting to know many people from different parts of the world. If you are interested in joining IFLRY's Liberal Web Team, please write to webteam@iflry.org with a short motivation and CV. Membership of a liberal youth organization or liberal political party is highly recommend, though not strictly required.

For any other questions regards the Liberal Web Team, feel free to write to webteam@iflry.org or to IFLRY Secretary General Bart Woord (bart@iflry.org).

Armenia: Four Months Later

Frederik — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:33:00 GMT

I am writing this on board my flight to the IFLRY EC in Manila. Well, actually this plane is only taking me to Hong Kong - from there I will then proceed to Manila and hopefully arrive in time for the opening ceremony.Unfortunately I wasn’t able to write this earlier, as pilot strikes in Germany had a lasting effect on my travel plans and required me to make it to Frankfurt on my own (by car and train, not by plane) - eventually, I arrived and made it on this flight.

For the last two weeks I was in the Southern Caucasus again, organizing seminars and international workshops in cooperation with JuLis Germany and the Friedrich-Naumann- Foundation for Liberty. We brought together participants from young liberal organizations from almost all different countries and regions and especially our cooperation workshop in Bakuriani, Georgia had some remarkable results, that I will write about in detail in a separate post during the next days.

From Bakuriani, Lasse Becker, the president of JuLis in the German state of Hesse, and I continued to a short fact finding visit in Armenia together with Dr. John from FNF.Since the IFLRY/FNF/VVD seminar on election observing during the fraudulent presidential elections in mid-February (please have a look at our IFLRY statement and my previous blog posts on that matter in case you have not read them yet), this was the first time for foreign liberals to officially return to Armenia. After the violent actions by government forces that were taken against peaceful protesters on March 1st and that resulted in 10 deaths (according to official sources) and hundreds of arrests, Dr. John and I myself had discussed many times when to return to Armenia to continue or work there. I was glad that he decided to join us when I suggested to show support to our mutual Armenian partners from the National Movement Youth after conducting the workshops in Azerbaijan and Georgia.Already entering the border took longer than usual, and we were convinced that at least one of us would be not allowed to enter. However, after long phone conversations by our visibly stressed border patrol representative we where finally let in the country. Probably, the respective officials in the regime have realized that not letting us - especially Dr. John - into the country would cause far more unwanted attention and thus harm them more than our activities inside the country (I might be corrected on this assumption when I try to enter Armenia next time).

Fortunately, Germany’s ambassador to Yerevan, her Excellency Mrs. Andrea Wiktorin, had agreed to meet us in the embassy in order to discuss the recent developments and events in Armenia and confer about the impediments on our cooperation with opposition forces. We had a very interesting discussion with her. While ambassadress Wiktorin’s analysis of the situation is very keen, intelligent and insightful, I think that the conclusions she is deriving from it are somewhat problematic, especially for me as a representative of IFLRY. I do see the positive effects of Germany’s activities in Armenia, such as supporting youth exchanges, and I am happy that my country is using our tax money for so many beneficial projects for the Armenian youth. However, while it does help to open up the eyes of the Armenian youth to what is possible in democracies by sending them abroad and involving them in international exchanges, no one takes care of them once they return and start to wonder why their home country is so far from democracy and why they are not allowed to participate actively in the political life of their country if their point of view is not in line with the governing regime.

For me it is not a surprise, that the majority of the people that I worked with in Armenia are not only extremely intelligent, astute and very well educated, but also frustrated because the regime actively hinders them to transform their society into a place where not only one’s connections and political affiliations matter, but the personal skills and excellence.Also this time, I met with a lot of members of the opposition - despite the fact that I stayed in Yerevan for less than a day in order to make it to Manila in time.

Right now, the situation is even worse than I assumed. Currently there are still 79 political prisoners. The majority of the leadership of the opposition is either in prison, in hiding or even dead. In my opinion, our partners do a heroic job. Lasse, Dr. John and I had several meetings with young members of the opposition and finally even visited a vigil that they organize around the clock on one of Yerevan’s main pedestrian areas, the “Northern Alley”. There, they inform Armenian citizens about the state of the governmental suppression and let them know about the fate of those who were arrested, put into prison and sent to court due to dubious allegations by policemen. They stay on the “Northern Alley” day and night and try to get public attention. In some ways, they where successful already. Some of the video footage of government forces recklessly killing peaceful protesters (e.g. by running them over driving their SUVs full-speed into a group of protesters) has been shown on foreign TV stations, such as in Germany. However, most people in Europe, Asia and the other continents do not even know about what happened in Armenia and continues to happen right now.

In the meantime, our friends keep getting arrested, sent to the KGB, put into prison or harassed in other ways all the time. The regime continuously shows, how afraid it is of the opposition: even young activists are constantly under surveillance by government agents in uniform and plain-cloth. Even Lasse and I experienced some particularly poorly skilled observation professionals during our stay in Yerevan. While trying to stay in the background when following us, the government thugs were not very effective and even did not managed to hide as quick as necessary when we took pictures…

I was asked in Yerevan whether I would react the same way our Armenian friends do, if things like this would happen in Germany. The truth is: I seriously do not know that - but I hope that I would be able to bring up the courage that they have, and stand up every day to struggle for democracy. As soon as I board the plane that takes me from Yerevan to Munich I cannot help but think about how unfair this is. I can leave and live my life in a country that protects my rights as a citizen and not actively tries to suppress and limit them

They can’t.

I am currently reading an excellent new book by James Harding which is called “Alpha Dogs: The Americans who turned Political Spin into a Global Business”. In it, Harding, an editor of the London Times, describes, amongst other things, that the only foreign supporters that the Philippine opposition had to plan and execute the ousting of the Marcos regime in the 80s where a professional golf course designer and a former editor of The Economist. I cannot help but think: If they managed something that big just because they where morally right and had some great communication skills, can’t we, IFLRY, the liberal youth of the world, do something like this for Armenia?

No matter how small or big the results of our efforts might be, for me the consequences are clear: we need to act.

Armenia needs us.

Zimbabwe: elections do not equal democracy

Paola — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:32:00 GMT

The results of the latest election process in Zimbabwe can not be recognized as a democratic procedure. The recent situation where opposition supporters were beaten or even murdered for expressing their political views can not be considered, in any way, as a proper democratic environment to contribute to a fair election. Zimbabwe has become a challenge for democratic countries, democratic institutions and fighters for democracy around the world.

The recent events of maltreatment and abuse during the last few weeks are completely unacceptable and have illustrated that democracy is not only to have the right to vote but also the right to vote for a candidate with proper guaranties, without threats and obstacles for individual believes and political views.

All these events in Zimbabwe, have made me think that we as young liberals have to continue our work on creating and promoting a democratic and safe political environment for all young people around the world, especially within countries like Zimbabwe where there are limited or no chances to express opinions and political views against the current leader, Mugabe, without putting their life in danger.

Democracy, women and double standards on the table of CoE's Summer session

Jelena_Serbia — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:59:00 GMT

Last week I was in Strasbourg, on a trip with lot of my connections from all over Germany so it was totally a "Tim style trip". I was in Strasbourg for the Alliance of Liberal and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group meeting on Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s (PACE) Summer session.

There were a lot of different topics discussed throughout the Summer session and some of them had really interesting titles such as "The fight against harm to the environment in the Black Sea". But on the other hand, there were a lot of hard debates about democratization in Europe and the double standards toward some of the member states of CoE. The ALDE group had a short but really interesting debate on the state of democracy in Europe. The group discussed the challenges of diversity, the migration challenges and the functioning of democratic institutions in Europe. The discussion kept returning to Russia and its involvement in the CoE, but like President of ALDE group and LI Secretary General pointed out: unfortunately Russia is not the only case where we can see negative trends in regard to democracy. On the discussion about democracy there was a lot of interesting inputs related to election observing missions of the CoE in Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Macedonia but also about China and the Olympic games.

Personally, among all discussions in the ALDE group, I found “Empowerment of women in a modern, multicultural society” the most interesting discussion as it opened Pandora’s Box. The discussion handled quota issues and among the women in the group, we had a really constructive discussion on liberal standing points on this topic. So what is liberal: to use quota or not to use quota?

Jelena

(jelena@iflry.org)

Barcelona-Belfast-Balkans -Bara- Bénévole

iflry — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:38:00 GMT

The last little bit has been crazy in the office from Barcelona to Belfast to the Balkans to the move and to the start of a new internship programme.

In the beginning of May, the European Youth Forum held the Council of Members and LYMEC had their Congress. Jelena Spasovic was representing IFLRY , and I was there on behalf of LYMEC. So we had a good liberal presence. The COMEM was very interesting and had session on EU-Africa work, recognizing training, EU Election work, and many more exciting sessions. The representatives from the young Conservatives, Socialist, Greens, Liberals and as well as the student political groups, all met briefly to discuss future cooperation. It was suggested that in the future, that a fringe meeting of the political youth be coordinated, since it’s not that often that we are all together. To learn more of about the COMEM, please contact Jelana@iflry.org.

After the COMEM was the LYMEC dinner. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend any of the congress, but from the facebook photos and stories, it sounds like it was a grand time. The dinner reception was very nice and the tribute to Roger was sweet.

Next up was LI’s 55th Congress in Belfast, Northern Ireland. This was a great event where liberals from around the world gather to discuss the theme ‘inclusive society’. This session had great speeches by many leading liberals such as President of Senegal Mr. Abdoulaye Wade, Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai presidential candidate of Zimbabwe, and our very own former Secretary General and current president of Alliance of Liberal and Democrats for Europe, Graham Watson MP. I had a great time at the workshop on the “Northern Ireland ten years after the Good Friday Agreement”. It was a great learning experience to engage in an open conversation with those who lived during the conflict and members of the audience who were invited to provide their thoughts and experiences. I asked the question of the reception of the agreement among young people and what kind of impact this will have on future leaders and policy makers. For more information on IFLRY representation at Liberal International events, please contact Paola@iflry.org

June rolled around and we had our seminar on Human Rights: Tools of the trade. This seminar was hosted by Young Liberals of Montenegro –YFLPMEN with sponsors from the European Youth foundation and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. The session yielded great discussion and very interesting perspectives. Participations created messages and projects that we will look at a gain in manila. To hear more on the seminar, please read Bart’s blog post.

On my way home from the seminar, I had a few hours in the Belgrade airport due to a delay of my flight. I had a great conversation with a man from Northern Ireland. It was like talking to your grandfather where wee talked about all things from life, job, family, and the good Friday agreement. I can’t seem to have a simple conversation without politics. It was a great insight to hear his opinion and stories.

Well, I am back in London after Barcelona, Belfast, and the Balkans. I am back in the cold weather of London and longing for the warm days of Montenegro….

Bära, in Swedish means ‘to carry’. We just recently moved our office to a new location in the building. We’re now self contained and have our own IFLRY office within the office we share with Liberal International. So we have a great new space and a great new intern ;) To keep with the B theme, I wrote the French word for volunteer. Lena Höglund started in June as our intern for the next 6 months. Her placement has been supported by the Foundation for Swedish Culture in Finland and Lena is a member of our Member Organization SU. We are really excited to have Lena working with us.

Next up…Parliamentary Assembly Meetings in Strasbourg and the Executive Committee in Manila.

Sarah (office@iflry.org)

Bay of Kotor

Bart — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:19:00 GMT

From the 2nd to the 8th of July, we held a seminar on human rights and free trade in Risan at the Bay of Kotor, Montenegro. Participants from different corners of the world flocked to this enchanting place - the Bay of Kotor is apparently considered as one of the thirty prettiest bays in the world... - to discuss the relationships between these two of liberalism's most important concepts. Through guest speakers and workshops dealing with a variety of issues, from the inclusion of human rights provisions in trade agreements to the potential use of trade sanctions to punish abusive regimes, participants were encouraged to think critically and creatively on the different intersections that exist between free trade and human rights.

As part of the seminar team I had the 'pleasure' to spend quite some time in advance and during the seminar itself to prepare some of the sessions: besides some introductory remarks, I coordinated a session dealing with the trade embargos and consumer boycotts during the Apartheid regime in South Africa, as well as a session on the 'resource curse' and the detrimental effects of particularly oil and gas exports on human rights in countries with nondemocratic institutions. Perhaps more interestingly, some of the sessions during the seminar were so-called 'open spaces' where participants could themselves bring up issues that they wanted to discuss within the framework of the seminar's topic. Consequently, in smaller groups we all engaged in discussions on for example the issue of property rights and generic medicines, the role of opposition groups in exile on the human rights policies of governments and the thesis that 'the best development aid is free trade'. Our participants from Belarus and Azerbaijan gave presentations on the human rights situation in their respective countries during these open space sessions.

In order to keep our minds fresh, sufficient amount of time was reserved for all of us to relax at the lake and to have a swim. This is also where we had our traditional cultural evening, which I think many of us consider as one of the best nights with some high-quality performances, tasty food and 'inspiring' drinks. We also ventured on some wonderful trips to Kotor itself and one by boat over the lake: definitely recommended!

In terms of output, video messages were recorded by the participants which will be broadcasted at IFLRY's upcoming Executive Committee in the Philippines in July. In addition, a campaign on human trafficking is currently being developed by some of the participants.

Of course, no successful seminar without great hosts: Sandra and Satka from the Young Liberals of Montenegro did a perfect job in terms of preparation as well as on-the-ground coordination. Also credits to the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty for generously supporting the seminar!

Bart Woord (bart@iflry.org)

LI 55th Congress

Paola — Fri, 23 May 2008 00:04:00 GMT

Last weekend, I had chance to attend the 55th Congress of Liberal International. It was a very interesting meeting with many important leader from all over the world.

As IFLRY' s representatives, we had a very nice host organization, our beloved member organisation Alliance Youth. They were key to the local details and were essential to our stay in Belfast. Thank you guys!!!, it was very nice to see you and to eat at Red Panda so to have "the best Chinese food" in all of Northern Ireland.

I would like to use this opportunity to congratulate the elected bureau of Liberal International who will be serving a new term and I hope to continue and improve relations between LI and IFLRY during their upcoming term.

At this Congress we had opportunity to get to know from first hand about situation in many places of the world. President of Senegal Mr. Abdoulaye Wade addressed the plenary at the welcome session, as well as Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai presidential candidate of Zimbabwe, who spoke with passion about the situation in Zimbabwe and the expectations and importants related to upcoming elections on June 27th

Other interesting meeting was the one between Relial (Liberal Network of Latin America) and CALD (Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats). I have opportunity to attend, at the invitation received by Relial's president Otto Guevara, and also as Colombian. During this meeting there were representatives of Thailand, Japan, Burma, Taiwan, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Perú, Paraguay and Colombia. Participants of this meetings expressed our concerns about political situation in our countries and our regions and also the meeting discussed ways to promote cooperation among there two platforms. I mentioned to participants from Asia our interest on having young representatives of all their countries in our next Executive Committee in Manila and they were willing to find ways to send them to our event.

I also had the honour to be invited to attend Lunch of International Liberal Leaders, hosted by Graham Watson MP, Leader of ALDE (Alliance of Liberal and Democrats for Europe) in the European Parliament. There were about 30-35 people from all continents. During this event, I had opportunity to talk with Mr. Watson about IFLRY's activities and also about situation in Colombia and Latin America. During his speech he mentioned his happiness about new steps done by IFLRY during last years, and our improvements as an organisation.

As part of the programme content of LI Congress, it was included a panel called "An inclusive society" in which I was asked to be moderator. The panel had as objective to debate about liberal perspectives regarding exclusion and discrimination in societies. Those panelists talked about discrimination of LGBT people around the world, but also about political exclusion that have been happening in Zimbabwe.

Besides those interesting topics, there were also funny things: my biography was printed in event book but my name was misspelled, so I suddenly became into Paola da Silva. It sounded as Brazilian and at the end even people from Latin America who knew me for long time ago, decided to introduce me to people as Paola da Silva.

Therefore, during this Congress there were many participants who came to me and to some other bureau and IFLRY representative to tell us their stories when they were members of bureau or attended an IFLRY event. Among this people it was Graham Watson, leader of ALDE and who mentioned me those times when he was IFLRY's secretary general and Roman Jakič from Slovenina who alse served as bureau member some years ago. Besides, our dearest Martin Sjögren who was a former Vicepresident of IFLRY and can not get enough of liberal politics, and of course our lovely Emilianito Kirjas who has never left the IFLRY family, just came to London to study and became LI’s Secretary General to be closer to us.

The LI Congress was a great event for IFLRY to promote that there is an active youth movement. As we were a group, we often divided ourselves between the workshops. My stories here are of the sessions that I attended, but the other delegates would have other stories to share as there were parallel sessions running daily. We gain a lot of exposer at this event, and I hope it continues.

Beneluberales

Bart — Sun, 18 May 2008 12:04:00 GMT

On Thursday I attended the first meeting of the Beneluberales, a group of several of the liberal youth organizations in the Benelux (Benelux, Netherlands, Luxembourg) which took place from the 14th to the 16th of May in Brussels. The idea of such a get-together had been floating in the air for many years but finally the Flemish LVSV and Jong-VLD took up the challenge. With political and financial support of the liberals in the European Parliament, a diverse, tasty and fun two days were planned.

Illustratively, the actual theme of the event, the Benelux, didn't feature very prominently in the programme. While it is one of the oldest regional institutions in the world (with its own Court of Justice, Parliament, Secretariat, etc.), setting an example for what is now the European Union, it has become completely overshadowed by the success of its cousin in terms of visibility and political and economic relevance. As one of the speakers noted, there are nowadays very few people who would call themselves 'citizens' of the Benelux, and even among all the politically engaged liberals convened at this meeting (like yours truly), knowledge about the Benelux was close to being fully absent.

After several speeches and Q&A's with most notably ELDR leader Annemie Neyts and ALDE leader Graham Watson, as well as a few workshops, a heated discussion took place between MEP Toine Manders and a large chunk of the participants on the issue of consumer protection. After all these fireworks, it was up to me and Philippe de Backer (J-VLD President) to make some concluding remarks that would serve as a sound basis for the ensuing dinner.

I brought up the issue of the '68 generation in the Benelux, France and other parts of the Western world, questioning how successful they had been in overthrowing traditional hierarchies and morals and construing their own. This in response to an article by Daniel Cohn-Bendit in various newspapers, in which he calls upon the new generations to define their own battles. However, if we move beyond the narrow Western European perspective to a more global one, and we look at modern rallying points for young people, we can only but observe that not much seems to have changed. A xenophobic nationalism, to be observed in well-organized groups of youth in China, Russia, but of course similarly so in more dispersed groups in Western Europe, seems to be as rampant as ever. While some may consider it an atavism for the 21st century, such (aggressive) nationalism remains one of the main challenges young liberals face vis-a-vis their peers.

Bart Woord

ps. comments are much appreciated!

Paternalistic Politics

Bart — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:50:00 GMT

If you think the Netherlands is still the 'liberal paradise', you may be disappointed to hear the most recent policy proposal of the current government. Consisting of the christian democrats, the social democrats and the left-wing Christian Union, it has moved to ban the legal sale of crazy (hallucinating) mushrooms. Admittedly, there have been some incidents with people who have hurt themselves badly, but to prohibit such in itself innocent stuff is an extreme measure which doesn't benefit anyone. The paternalizing government is back in town.

Among the many reasons for allowing crazy mushrooms, is for example that there is actually some social control in the way they have to be used in order to avoid problems. The owners of the shops who sell them are professionals who have as one of their main interests to avoid that their customers will get into trouble, so advice about their use is part and parcel of the commerce. Moreover, in a legalized trade, the government can at least set some health standards as to the content of the mushrooms. For example, dried crazy mushrooms have been prohibited because they contain a certain amount of the hallucinating matter which can be considered dangerous for people's health, and (perhaps) rightfully so. As a consequence, only fresh mushrooms are now being sold and consumers are thus kept away from the dried versions. Once both versions go underground - as they will naturally do - there is no such distinction for the consumer. Finally, and probably most importantly, the state's 'raison d'etre' is certainly not to tell people what to use and what not to use for their private enjoyment ...

Last weekend (26th and 27th of April), me and my fellow liberal-democratic Young Democrats (Jonge Democraten - JD) convened for the semiannual congress of our organization. As the ban on crazy mushrooms is just one example of the paternalizing policies of the current government, much discussion was devoted to it (and how to counter it!). President of the hosting JD Amsterdam branch, Ferry Nagel, put it - jokingly but correctly - at his opening speech: "Welcome to Amsterdam, also known as the previously most tolerant city of the world... the association with 'sex, drugs and rock 'n roll' nowadays only remains in the head of the senior ex-junkie who has become a bike mechanic out of despair". JD's National President, Floris Kreiken, described later on at his presidential speech the government's approach: "There is a complicated problem, like the aging of society or excessive drinking among youngsters, and the government tries to solve this by shifting the responsibility elsewhere or by targeting only the symptoms. (...) These are all populist proposals without any considerations of functionality."

Luckily enough there is still hope: elections in about two years (and hopefully earlier)!

IFLRY @ ALDE

Bart — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:46:00 GMT

Four times a year does the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) convene, and IFLRY is traditionally present in order to support the Assembly of Liberals and Democrats in Europe (ALDE). From the 13th to the 16th of April another PACE meeting took place in Strasbourg (France). IFLRY was represented by Jan van Run, one of the IFLRY auditors and International Officer of JOVD. Find below his blog post:

Two weeks before the April session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the council of Europe I received an e-mail asking whether I’d like to go there to help out the ALDE group for a bit and hang around the meetings afterwards.

Being a political junky, the hanging around part sounded quite appealing especially when one realizes that Gasparovic, Merkel and Timochenko would be giving speeches at noon on the three days I’d be there. So the decision was taken in a split second and off we were, by ICE to Strasbourg.

I arrived on Sunday evening and met up with my roommate, drank some beer and went to bed. On Monday morning I had to be present in the palais de l’europe at 0815, of course this seems early…. And indeed it is! The meeting started in time and was finished in time as well!

The meeting was quite interesting, especially the debates were great. People were actually debating in a way one rarely sees, then again there were over 20 countries present in the meeting and as we know at IFLRY, liberalism can have very different meanings in different countries. Especially when you put together national politicians as is done in PACE.

At noon I got to listen to a rather poor speech by mister Gasparovic, a real let-down unfortunately. The rest of the afternoon we had lunch and coffee and at 1700 we had the second group meeting of the day after which we took a bus to Germany for the traditional asparagus dinner which was very nice.

Tuesday was a free day but since Angela Merkel would be delivering her speech this day, I decided to go in in time which was a good decision, the entire hemicycle was filled, both the members and the guests showed up in drones. Merkel didn’t disappoint at all, her vision was clear and strong. But could of course be more liberal. Afterwards I went on to walk through the beautiful city of Strasbourg.

On Wednesday we had one more short meeting with the group after which I had time to listen to a fairly interesting speech by miss Timochenko, it is of course interesting that the Russians are present in the CoE as well. As one might imagine they had some questions prepared but unfortunately I had to catch my train and couldn’t stay for most of the questions.

For more information on IFLRY's involvement in the Council of Europe, please contact the IFLRY Office: office@iflry.org .

African Liberal Youth meeting in Johannesburg

Bart — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:17:00 GMT

Until the 4th of April, IFLRY Vice President Aicha Camara and me are present in the proximity of Johannesburg, South Africa, at the IFLRY/FNF seminar on African liberal youth cooperation. About 25 young African liberals from 12 different liberal youth organizations have convened here to discuss their bilateral, subregional and pan-African cooperation. Active IFLRY member organizations like UJTL (Senegal), RJR (Cote d'Ivoire) and NPP-Y (Ghana) are naturally present, but also liberal youth organizations that have only been affiliated to the Organization of African Liberal Youth (OALY) or are completely new at all.

It is the first time in several years that IFLRY is organizing a seminar in Africa again and so far it seems to become a very good start for further international liberal involvement in Africa. One of the hopeful outcomes of this event is the revitalization of OALY. African liberal youth face many common challenges and a pan-African organization can help all these organizations to learn from each other, exchange best-practices and ultimately improve their domestic work and voice their concerns and ideas on an international level. Also with the help of former IFLRY VP and Senegalese Member of Parliament Tafsir Thioye, steps are being taken to get OALY back on track.

However, it will not be easy. Resources are scarce, and there is still officially a Bureau in place (but which hasn't convened in many years and of which only one - Aicha - is present). On Friday there will be the final session on the future plans for OALY. We'll keep you updated on the outcome!

ps. obviously, the results of the Zimbabwean elections are being very closely followed here...

YLB Website Launched

Bart — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:36:00 GMT

The Young Liberals for Belarus Network has launched its own web page; find it here: http://www.liberalsforbelarus.com . The Young Liberals for Belarus is a network that brings together various liberal youth organizations which are committed to - and engaged in - supporting liberalism and democracy in Belarus. This Network was established in Vilnius, August 2007, and met for a second time in Stockholm, December 2007.

Our aims are to assist our liberal partners in Belarus in a comprehensive and effective manner and to raise awareness on the situation of democracy and human rights in Belarus among Europeans and around the world.

If you and/or your organization wants to become part of the Network, please send an email to ylb(@)iflry.org .

IFLRY Bureau Needs You!

Jelena_Serbia — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:00:00 GMT

As a recently elected Bureau of the International Federation of Liberal Youth, we are currently developing our working plan for the next two years and would like to seek input from our Member Organizations and other fellow liberals. In order to achieve this, we designed a questionnaire to receive constructive feedback and to learn about your expectations.

Find the questionnaire here: http:/iflry.org/files/folders/survey/entry1219.aspx .

It is in our and your interest to fill in the form as honestly and extensively as possible.

Please complete the questionnaire and return it by 10 March 2008 to survey@iflry.org !

Armenia has voted - but did it get what it wanted?

Frederik — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 23:20:00 GMT

For the last week Bart and I have been in Armenia for a joint seminar with Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty and the VVD, but also to witness the presidential elections. Together with participants from the Armenian National Movement, the Georgian Young Republicans and representatives from Abkhazia we discussed different aspects of election observing. As a part of that seminar, I held a lecture about the many varieties of election fraud and how to prevent them. I ended the lecture with the conclusion that there are many different effective and efficient ways to prevent election fraud, but most of them need to be backed and introduced by the government. After the seminar we unfortunately had to find out that the governing regime in Armenia apparently not only has low incentives to work against election fraud, but rather uses the various gaps in the current system for its own purposes. On election day, we heard several reports about election fraud and numerous irregularities, so the “official” result of the elections - the overwhelming victory of the government candidate Serzh Sargsyan - did not come as a surprise to us. However, after having seen the vast support that the main opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian received during his rallies it is very hard to believe that the results given by the election commission are even anywhere close to reality.

Personally I was very disappointed also by the international media coverage of the election result especially in European print media. Most journalists apparently did not even care to read the OSCE Election Observation Mission's report, that stated numerous observed flaws and irregularities - but concluded right away that the elections "mostly" had been fair. I had expected that even an average journalist would be able to see the clearly listed facts in the report even though the OSCE naturally used the usual rather diplomatic terms to describe the situation (actually the report and the press conference where very explicit when you compare them to the standard the OSCE normally uses). However, I unfortunately was wrong.

Overall the elections where a big disappointment to all of us who had hoped for free and fair processes but I am convinced and I hope that the democratic forces in Armenia will continue their struggle - we will support them wherever we can.

Elections in Serbia

Bart — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:08:00 GMT

By: Jelena Spasovic, IFLRY Vice President

Serbia's ultra-nationalist Radical Party (SRS) leader Nikolić finished the first round of elections with a lead over the Democratic Party (DS) leader and presidential incumbent, Boris Tadic. Even on CNN this is one of top news and all people that are doing political analysis talk about influence of process about Kosovo and this results, while also they are trying to guess what will happen with Serbia if Nikolic (SRS) wins this second round. CNN's European political editor Robin Oakley believes that the runoff will be a pivotal moment in the Balkan nation's history. "February 3 therefore becomes a crucial choice not just for Serbians but for many across the Balkans who fear a further decade of instability and economic stagnation," Oakley said. Analyzes of possible results of the runoff already started and all researchers expect that votes of SPS candidate Mr. Mrkonjić (6%) go, for the most part, to Nikolić. LDP (Jovanović) supporters (5,6%) are expected to back Tadić. The big question is who Velimir Ilić's votes will go to. Mr. Ilic gets 7.6 % of votes and everyone expect that this vote will decide where Serbia will go in future. As Mr. Ilic was candidate of party of Prime Minister Kostunica now it is time to see what he is going to chose as direction, EU or Russia.

Once again Serbia is in the place where it needs to chose which road will be taken and that is why February 3rd will be very important for country. According to researchers 70% of Serbian people support integration to EU; we hope they will realize that this is also fight for European path and that is why this situation is more serious and they need to decide to go and vote.

I am not expecting anything because on this point I am not an optimist but I still hope that Kostunica will realize what his propaganda for rising nationalism does to Serbia. Only Radicals benefit from it and that he will take responsibility for his moves and finally support democratic candidate in runoff. I also hope that people before voting will think about message that LDP try to send "100% of people are more important then 15% of territory" and decide to vote for their future and not for Kosovo.

I think that Serbia is at a point where we need a new reunion of democratic parties, this time not against Milosevic but against Nikolic and his party that has never been closer to 50% of votes then now. They all need to forget their differences and to see that priority for this moment is to back Serbia on path to EU and to finally say NO to the past: authoritarian politics, ultra-nationalists, wars, isolations and all things that we saw in '90 during regime of Milosevic.

IFLRY in the press in Ivory Coast

Bart — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 23:27:00 GMT

By Ahissata Camara, IFLRY Vice President

Today, the 5th January 2008, the Ivorian opposition-friendly newspaper “le Patriote” has published an article about the General Assembly in Sarajevo, which is the result of a telephone interview I made just after the GA.

The article is in French and talks about the bureau elections, mentioning that IFLRY has elected its first African woman to a leading position and that IFLRY has as objective to “promote liberalism on a planetary scale”.

The direct link to the article is:

http://www.lepatriote.net/lire/e1b07bd4-2cae-4261-a7c3-60ae645f31f8.aspx

I hope that this article will make more people in Ivory Coast aware of IFLRY and interested in the organisation. It is also good to show that young people in Africa that are not part of a corrupt ruling party can access important international positions.

In the future I hope to be the origin of more articles in other African countries that are less about me and more about specific political issues faced by those countries.

Remembering Anna

Danwen — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 17:15:00 GMT

Exactly one year ago, russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya from Novaja Gazeta, got shot to death in the elevator of her apartment building. She was one of the too few Russian journalist that dares to write about topics of sensitive character to the Kreml and president Putin, such as the war in Chechnya.

The reasons for the Kreml's tighter grip on media and politics can be discussed. I strongly believe that one of the main reasons for the current situation in Russia is the lack of democratic history and therefore the lack of positive experiences of freedom amongst Russian voters. Moreover, the most free period in Russian history is tied to economic decay.

Russians are again less free. Despite the fact that the economy is in considerably better shape than during perestroika and glasnost during the late eighties and even better than during the relatively democratic nineties under Jeltsin, Russian people today lack political basic rights that characterize any contemporary democracy.

Many Russians feel marginalised and forcely detached of their superpower status after the emerge of a new system. A large part of the population believe that the so called freedom and democracy has not brought what it promised with regards to food on the table. Russian politicians and authorities are still corrupt and the US is now alone the single superpower, which can be seen as a failure for Russia.

Figures such as Anna Politkovskaya that challenge the army and the image of Russia as a superpower and, moreover, challenge the country's great leader Putin are not always popular amongst contemporary Russians.

Unfortunately, Politkovskaja is one of the twelve Russian journalists that has been murdered or mysteriously vanished during the latest years. Freedom of speech in Russia is continiuously diminishing day by day.

This lack of positive images of democracy and freedom also concern the leaders of Russia. They have learnt how to run the government and institutions during the Soviet era. Now, with a romantic old memory of the superpower that they were as the Soviet Union, they lack methods for the implementation of a democratic leadership. The population might have been quite poor then, as many people still are today, but they were still important.

However, Russian history will grant her a proper legacy just as Putin is already being exposed as an undemocratic and megalomaniac leader. The more journalists’ and activists’ blood he spills the worse the judgement of him will be.

In order to support a proper development towards democracy in Russia, it is of great importance to support the opposition, journalist and activists that commit themselves to accomplish a change. It is also important to condemn any crime or violation of human rights. Despite Putin's power or method we Hill support the legacy of Anna Politkovskaya and other journalists that offered their lives in the name of freedom and democracy.

/ Daniel W

We & Burma

Bart — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:57:00 GMT

Yesterday I wrote a statement for IFLRY on the current situation in Burma. I know that there is some controversy over whether to refer to Burma or Myanmar, but as I know that many pro-democracy NGOs in the West are still using Burma (for example the Burma centers), I'm just following their precedent.

Now that the situation is getting grimmer and grimmer, it is questionable whether one of the calls in the statement (to avoid the bloodshed) will hold much longer. In one of the several Facebook groups set up on the issue, there is growing concern (in particular among Burmese students abroad) that a same sort of scenario is unfolding as a little less than 20 years ago.

The big question is always what to do as an outsider (as many of us are) in order to help these brave protestors. While many often simply do not have the illusion they can do anything at all, some others may even put into perspective the very complicated history of Myanmar with for example its huge ethnic diversity (as was just outlined to me by a Swiss friend of mine who's currently studying in Singapore), and the need for a strong government to keep those forces in control.

Nevertheless, I personally do believe in the ability to be part of some sort of change while being an 'outsider'. I know that there are several solidarity actions taking place around the world, like for example the one in London which takes place every day in front of the Burmese embassy (for Burmese embassies in other countries, check here). It would be too long a discussion to go into all the pros and cons of the potential added value of such actions, but in short: the news of such actions taking place do reach the opposition movements in Burma (for sure those in exile), and such shows of global solidarity (as opposed to apathy) are the corner stone of a more universal morality in which our desire for freedom and democracy do not stop at our borders but extend to all human beings, no matter where they are.

I had never thought I would be saying this, but: go Monks!

From: http://bartwoord.wordpress.com .

Building a bridge in Mostar

Danwen — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 17:10:00 GMT

Youth, mainly the western Balkans, met in Mostar, Bosnia, this past weekend to discuss education and youth unemployment. The aim of the meeting was to create a constructive dialogue among western Balkan youth from different ideological camps. The meeting in Mostar led to several suggestions on how to improve the education systems and decrease youth unemployment.

One of the reasons for holding the meeting in Mostar is that it is one of the cities in Bosnia that was most effected by the war. The scars of the war are much more visible in Mostar than in Sarajevo according to Edin Colic and Majda Zeherovic from Young Liberals of Bosnia. However, Mostar is a beautiful city that is well worth a visit. The nature around the city is very beautiful as well.

Numerous constructive solutions were the end result of the meeting. These solutions will be the subject of a future meeting in the spring that will revisit the themes from this inaugural event. It is very important for the youth of the region to have forums to discuss issues that span over the political spectra. This was one first important step in that direction.

/ Daniel W