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30 April, London (UK) - IFLRY, the global umbrella of liberal youth and student organizations, strongly condemns today's actions by the Azerbaijani authorities against two of its Member Organizations in relation to the mourning of last year's massacre at the Baku State Oil Academy. The Azerbaijani regime today detained more than 30 mostly young people who assembled to commemorate the killing of 13 of their fellow students at the Baku State Oil Academy last year. As part of its ongoing clampdown against young people, the Azerbaijani authorities yesterday also pre-emptively detained the President of IFLRY Member Organization Musavat Youth, Mr. Tural Abbasli. Later today, the office of another Member Organization, DALGA, was raided by the authorities. Many of the people who were detained today have been beaten or violently intimated by security forces.
The Azerbaijani regime, led by dictator Ilham Aliev, has by these actions made another effort to show it is utterly disinterested in human rights and democracy. They follow those like the ongoing imprisonment of youth activists Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli, who are jailed for their criticism of the government, to which IFLRY has repeatedly drawn attention as well.
IFLRY President Bart Woord: "It is time for the West to get serious about human rights and democracy in Azerbaijan and to stop pretending there is no potential for change. It should be impossible that a country which is member of the Council of Europe and signatory to the Eastern Partnership of the EU can get away with its human rights abuses as easily as it does now. In particular, we are outraged by the direct attacks of the government on two of our Member Organizations."
The International Federation of Liberal Youth calls upon the immediate release of Tural Abbasli and his fellow arrested Musavat Youth members. IFLRY also calls upon all European and international institutions to do whatever is in their means to secure the freedom of all political prisoners in Azerbaijan, in particular Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli.
[END]
IFLRY (est. 1947) is the global umbrella of liberal, democratic, centrist, libertarian and radical youth and student organizations, representing over 2.5 million young people around the world from every continent. Its aim is to spread liberal values around the world and to support young people in authoritarian countries.
For more information about IFLRY or about this statement, please contact IFLRY President Bart Woord (bart@iflry.org - +31615624560).
For more information on today's events, please check regional news sites www.rferl.org, www.eurasianet.org or www.azerireport.com .
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The IFLRY Bureau is calling upon its Member Organizations to participate in the first ever Liberal Solidarity Week (LSW), to take place between the 20th and the 26th of September 2010.
The LSW is an annual event in which young liberals from around the world show solidarity with people in authoritarian countries which are deprived of their fundamental rights. This can take the form of organizing a workshop, holding a lecture, petitioning politicians, organizing a picket at the embassy, or anything else that will raise awareness and draw attention.
With more than 100 organizations spread over 5 different continents potentially participating, we can send a powerful message to our friends working under difficult circumstances for a more free and democratic society, and to those working against them. It is also a good way of showing to your members, party, media and political rivals that your organization does care about human rights and democracy around the world.
The IFLRY Bureau is proposing three countries which member organizations can focus on for this year's LSW, namely Azerbaijan, Cuba and Singapore.
[Azerbaijan]
Azerbaijan is an often forgotten dictatorship at the fringes of Europe. It is hard to imagine under the current President Ilham Aliev that it actually has a rich historical democratic tradition. A multitude of brave youth organizations (of which several IFLRY MOs) do their best in bringing change, but it's a difficult fight.
[Cuba]
More than 50 years of Communist dictatorship have not done the people of Cuba much good. And that's an understatement. Still widely believed to be a romantic and benevolent dictatorship, much is needed to make young people around the world understand that the vast majority of Cubans are craving freedom and democracy.
[Singapore]
This ultra-modern city-state often tops the lists when it comes to prosperity and business friendliness. Its government, however, is of a clear-cut authoritarian nature and controls its people like a modern day Big Brother. Democracy and human rights are not part of its vocabulary and its authoritarian-capitalist model is spreading across the globe. We need to support our partners on the ground who rightfully fight for their rights.
We are able to provide you with all the necessary information and (digital) materials for each of these countries that you need for your activity. This includes information that you may need for press releases.
In terms of activities, we would like to leave as much space as possible for member organizations to do what they think works best in their own organizational and domestic context. We can make a couple of (compatible) suggestions:
- Workshop: an internal event in your organization about the issue and perhaps afterwards a resolution for your mother party?
- Articles in media: get an article posted in a newspaper that addresses the need to support the change-making (young) people in the country in question.
- Conference: invite dissidents, people in exile, NGO’s or whoever you think will help you having an interesting session.
- Movie night: Images say more than a thousand words. We could send you movies or documentaries in DVD or provide you with the links to download.
- Demonstration. you think that just sitting down wont help much? Create a plackard, get a megaphone and shout for freedom.
- Political lobby: set up a meeting with influential people in your country and explain what’s going on.
But feel free to do other things! We would just like to encourage you to engage as many of your members in this initiative and to reach out to as many others. You could for example have several local branches participating (and even have them focus on different countries). You can chose to have one activity during this week (for example when you anyway have a regular get-together), or if you have the resources and the enthusiasm to, organize several of them.
The most important element is that you communicate to us in advance what is going to take place within your organization and that afterwards you collect pictures and other materials. We will gather all of this into an online report and a presentation at the IFLRY General Assembly in November 2010.
By the 1st of July we would like to make a first inventory of all the activities taking place during the LSW. Please send us the following information before then to lsw@iflry.org :
1) Member Organization (including local, regional or national level if applicable):
2) Country of focus:
3) Type of activity:
4) Location and date:
5) Information or materials needed from IFLRY:
6) Contact details of the contact person (if other than the person sending the information).
We will get in touch with each of you to discuss further details once we have made the inventory. Since we want to make this a recurring event each year, we would also like you to send us your feedback after the LSW in order to help us improve it each year.
All of your questions, comments, remarks and suggestions can be sent to lsw@iflry.org.
Are you not part of an IFLRY member organization but you still want to take part in the LSW? Please send us an e-mail with your organizational (or personal) background and what you would like to be doing.
We hope to see as many of you taking part!
Liberal regards,
Jordi Villanueva
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18 March 2010 The International Federation of Liberal Youth commemorates today the 7th anniversary of the Cuban Black Spring. Beginning on March 18th 2003, the Cuban government arrested and sentenced 75 dissidents all over Cuba – of which 54 of these are still in jail. Together with around 150 other political prisoners, they are confined in awful conditions just for writing, establishing small libraries in their homes, and peacefully working for democratic change. Bart Woord, IFLRY President: "After 51 years of relentless dictatorship, the people of Cuba are desperate for change. The recent death of political prisoner Orlando Zapata while on a hunger strike and the subsequent decision by other dissidents to turn to this extreme form of pressure illustrates the depth of hopelessness in Cuba. It is high time for the Cuban people to exercise their inherent human rights and attain self-determination and democratic pluralism." Bart visited many Cuban human rights defenders on a two-week trip to Cuba in January 2010. Today more than 2000 European members of parliament, from Spain to Norway and Georgia, will receive a letter from IFLRY asking them to step up their activities on the support of human rights and democracy on the island. Among the concrete suggestions are to allow for Cuban human rights defenders to access the internet at their countries' embassies, to ask government representatives to regularly visit human rights defenders outside of Havana and for their embassies to only hire and pay Cuban workers directly at the embassies. The call is joined by a leaflet showing the features of various political prisoners. In conjunction with this call, the young liberals of the world are holding a Solidarity Fast from 8 AM to 8 PM today. Members of the IFLRY Bureau as well as hundreds of young liberals show their personal concern for the state of human rights on the island. IFLRY is committed to supporting human rights and democracy on the island. For 2010 it has set up a special Programme under the coordination of a Team that will focus on awareness raising and political advocacy. For more information, please consult IFLRY Vice President Jordi Villanueva (jordi@iflry.org). [END] For editors: IFLRY is the worldwide federation of liberal, democratic, centrist, libertarian and radical youth and student organizations. It was established in 1947 as WFLRY and focuses on the promotion of liberal values around the world. Its Office is based in London, United Kingdom. For more information on IFLRY, please consult office@iflry.org or IFLRY President Bart Woord (bart@iflry.org). IFLRY Member Organizations can use this statement for their own purposes.
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Today the Singapore Democratic Party is celebrating its 30th anniversary. The International Federation of Liberal Youth is congratulating the SDP and its youth organization, the SDP-Y, with this milestone in the party's remarkable history of being the most important democratic actor in the authoritarian country. Find below the letter written to the attendants of the anniversary celebration: Dear Friends of the Singapore Democratic Party,
On behalf of the 2.5 million young liberals forming the International Federation of Liberal Youth, I would like to congratulate you with your 30th anniversary. The International Federation of Liberal Youth is the primary global political youth movement which stands for and defends human rights and democracy around the world and we are very proud to have the Youth of the SDP among our membership. Your tireless work and dedication is not only crucial for a free and fair destiny of your country and your people, but also for democratic movements abroad who you inspire. Moreover, due to your continuous scrutiny and critique of your government's policies, you provide the bare facts to be used against the propaganda of those favoring Singaporean-style authoritarian capitalism around the world. I am wishing you all the strength, inspiration and commitment necessary to move forward with your struggle in the weeks, months and years ahead. Please be aware that you can count on the support of all the activists involved in our Federation as your sisters and brothers in the quest to a more free, fair and democratic world,
of which you are so much part and parcel.
Sincere and respectful regards,
Bart Woord
IFLRY President
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During the 25-27th of January, I had the opportunity to take part in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) which is organized by the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. Thank you to Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), for giving International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) the chance to attend PACE with a representative.
As a guest invited by the ALDE group, I assisted in their meetings and helped them with some of the practical arrangements. At the ALDE meeting they prepared their spokespersons of the group to the Parliamentary Assembly session, had elections to several ALDE committees, election for Vice-Chairpersons and had current affairs debates and discussions.
The agenda in the Parliamentary Assembly was focus on several elections where a new president was elect as well as a judge to the European Court of Human Rights. Since the new president of the Parliamentary Assembly Mevlüt Çavusoglu was elected there were many interesting press conferences where the new president spoke about how he works in the future.
I also had the opportunity to visit the session where the situation in Middle East was discussed. It was interesting as representatives from Palestine and Israel attended and gave their view about the conflict. I also attended the session when communication from the Committee of Ministers to the Parliamentary Assembly was presented. I attend as well some of the meetings of the conference of INGOs where they discussed a three-year framework programme in the Russian Federation and discussed the adoption of priorities of the Conference of INGO.
I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to visit PACE. I learned a lot and met politicians, journalists, as well as staff at the Council of Europe, administrators and other interns from all over Europe. Thank you IFLRY and ALDE.
Elin Blomqvist
Intern IFLRY’s office
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On the 5th of December, IFLRY delivered a speech at the Focus Iran International Solidarity Convention in the Netherlands. Sandra Reynaers, International Officer and Deputy President of JOVD, addressed the delegates in the Convention hall as well as viewers via the Internet from Iran and beyond. Find the video of her speech here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1QZF3sd_LI .
Find the text of the full speech at the bottom of this item. For any questions or for more information, please consult the IFLRY Office (office@iflry.org). [START]
Dear friends,
My name is Sandra Reynaers and I am the Deputy
President and International Officer of JOVD. I represent here the
International Federation of Liberal Youth on behalf of its President,
Mr. Bart Woord, who unfortunately couldn't attend this conference.
The
International Federation of Liberal Youth, or IFLRY, is the worldwide
umbrella of over 100 liberal, democratic, centrist, radical and
libertarian youth organizations. In the Netherlands, both my
organization as well as the Jonge Democraten are Full Members of IFLRY.
Our Federation was established 62 years ago, in 1947, in order to
peacefully spread liberal values around the world by engaging young
people.
Over the years, many of our members have been battling
oppression. Whether this was political oppression in authoritarian
countries, where young people were silenced to speak out; whether this
was economic oppression in communist countries, where people were
prohibited from pursuing their dreams; or whether this was social
oppression in conservative countries, where cultural and religious
freedoms were being suppressed.
We have seen progress with the
collapse of the Soviet Union and the waves of democratization in parts
of Latin America, Africa and Asia. However, we shall be the last to
declare that the dream of freedom, democracy and human rights for every
individual on this globe is close to being finalized. In fact, we're
worried.
We are particularly worried about our sisters and
brothers in the great country of Iran. The world witnessed your revolt
this summer and we are still in shock over the blatant injustice that
you are facing every day since.
The International Federation of
Liberal Youth (IFLRY) expresses its sincere solidarity with the Iranian
youth and their people in their right to expresses their grievances
towards the establishments of Iranian society through peaceful and
non-violent means. Taking into account Iran sensitive situation where
elections are farcical and there is no genuine right of political
participation, we viewed the riots as the natural result of built-up
frustration by young people within a system that does not take their
voice into account.
IFLRY believes in the freedom of expression
and individualism. While we recognize that religion can be an important
part of people's lives, a certain life style cannot and should not be
enforced upon a person by the state, let alone with the use of
coercion. We adhere to the ideal that each generation needs to define
its own paths of life: the young Iranians should have a chance to
decide upon theirs. We are in full support of all Iranian citizens
especially the youth who embrace the values of freedom, human rights,
civil liberties and rule of law. IFLRY continues to affirm the
importance of democratic and fair elections. No government should rule
without a clear and clean mandate from its people.
We are
thankful to the organizers of this conference as well as to all those
other people around the world who show that they care about their
friends in Iran. By these acts of solidarity we show our common
humanity and our dedication to the fundamental values of freedom and
justice.
We hope that this spirit extends beyond civil society
and reaches governments and international organizations. Whereas they
seem to be only concentrated on the nuclear issue, one cannot lose
sight of the connection between an authoritarian and populist
government and the instability that it brings to the international
community. We are skeptical about any change on the diplomatic level if
the roots of the Iranian regime remain the same.
Our call for an
international engagement to promote democracy and civil society in Iran
is not a call for boycotts. Too often, it is the people who suffer from
economic boycotts instead of their wicked governments. Instead, we
believe that a solid and sustained engagement with Iranian civil
society is what will help the change. Exchange programmes for students,
professors, academics, business women and men, may all lead to the
influx of new ideas and skills with which democracy can be built from
bottom up.
Brothers and sisters, there is still a long way to
go, but you can count on the young liberals of this world to support
you in every step you take. Keep in mind that evil cannot be rooted out
by evil and that only respect for freedom and the difference of people
provides the way for true and sustainable change.
Thanks for your attention. [END]
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Monday, December 7th
COPENHAGEN
- Today marks the opening day of the United Nations Climate Change
Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, which is supposed to come up with an
agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol from 1997. Almost 200 countries
will come together to develop agreements targeting climate change,
particularly the reduction of greenhouse gases and an end to
deforestation.
Today,
the International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) received official
observer status with the UNFCCC and is present with an official
delegation of 100 young liberals from different parts of the world. The
IFLRY delegation is led by IFLRY Climate Change Programme Manager
Stephan Korte and IFLRY President Bart Woord, with the support of our
local hosts Radikaler Ungdom '94 and Venstres Ungdom. The delegation
will meet on a daily basis to discuss the programme of the day and the
progress of the conference negotiations. In addition, a Liberal
Networking Event is to be held on the 14th of December in order to
bring together all liberals at the Conference.
Bart
Woord, IFLRY President: "This is the first time that IFLRY is present
at a major UN event with such a large delegation and we are setting the
stage for a future in which we want to have a strong liberal voice on
international platforms. I believe that this initiative brings great
value to the member organizations present and particularly the
young liberals who are able to experience the nuts and bolts of a
global diplomatic conference."
Stephan Korte, IFLRY Climate Change Programme Manager: "We are proud
that the first large project of our Climate Change Programe is now up
an running. While being confident that the IFLRY COP 15 Experience will
be a big success in terms of providing a unique capacity building
opportunity for our delegates, we are aware that there remains a lot to
be done to ensure that the Conference will eventually come up with a
fair, ambitious and binding agreement. We are here to make our liberal
contribution, mainly focusing on promoting solutions that make full
use of market mechanisms and involve the private sector in all aspects combating climate change."
If
you want to receive further information or want to keep up to date with
the proceedings of the IFLRY delegation at the COP-15, please contact climatechange@iflry.org or call +31615624560 (Bart). You can also follow us via Twitter.
[Due
to a technical problem, our standard news and events features on the front page of
our homepage are temporarily out of order. Until it is fixed, the Bureau
blog will be used for this purpose.]
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Dear friends,
Last weekend the International Federation of Liberal Youth
witnessed a new high point in its more than sixty years of
history. IFLRY's Dutch member organizations JD and JOVD put up quite a
show by organizing a smoothly run and highly successful 32nd
General Assembly in The Hague, The Netherlands.
The General Assembly adopted a new Manifesto - in the making throughout 2009 - that was completely
revised from the version that had been used for the past 15 years. Moreover, the GA elected a new
Bureau that is going to lead our Federation for the next 2 years and I feel very honored to have been elected as your President. I am joined by a fantastic team consisting of Frederik
Ferie (Julis, Germany) as Secretary General, Jan van Run
(JOVD, Netherlands) as Treasurer, and Mirna Mneimneh (Future
Youth, Lebanon), Mauricio Lopez (Libertarian Youth), Naomi Ichihara
Rokkum (NUV, Norway) and Jordi Villanueva (JNC, Catalunya) as Vice Presidents. You can reach the new Bureau via bureau@iflry.org or individually via <first name>@ iflry.org
. We would like to thank the previous Bureau for its hard
work and commitment to the progress of our Federation over the past
years and particularly to Paola Silva (UCJD, Colombia), who has been a
member of the Bureau for the past 6 years.
The General Assembly also elected two new auditors: Mats Lofstrom
(SU, Finland) and Emil Dyred (RU '94, Denmark) who can be reached via auditors@iflry.org .
In addition, I believe that the Standing Committees that took place during the GA
have both seen important advancements. The SC on Manifesto &
Resolutions has established a team that will prepare a proposal for the
standardization of the format of resolutions submitted to IFLRY's
statutory events (EC and GA). The SC on Membership discussed a more
effective and transparent procedure for assessing membership
applications that shall be put in place at future statutory events.
The new Bureau is very much looking forward to working on behalf
of the Member Organizations in the coming two years. We shall present
our Plan of Action by the 3rd week of January. Please keep track of our
work and of major developments within our organization by following us
on Twitter and by becoming part of our Facebook fan page.
Unfortunately, our webpage still suffers from several technical errors
but we will keep you informed as best as possible via the Bureau blog
and our newsletter (if you have some IT skills to spare - please
contact me).
At the General Assembly it became once more apparent that our
Federation needs more financial support in order to keep its work
going. You will very soon hear about our exclusive donor's programme
Friends of IFLRY that will allow you to be of additional value to young
liberals around the world while at the same time linking you up closer
to the global liberal network. We're hoping for your support (already
curious? please write treasurer@iflry.org ).
Finally, please be aware that we are always open for feedback and
suggestions about the work of our Federation. Just contact any of us
and we will try to work it out as best as we can.
Liberal regards,
Bart Woord
_____________________ IFLRY President Fédération Internationale des Jeunesses Libérales Federación Internacional de Juventudes Liberales Международная Федерация Либеральной Молодежи
E: bart@iflry.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/bartlemot
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Dear friends, Following our successful application for observer membership with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which entitles us to send delegations to all major climate change events within the UN framework, the Bureau is planning on putting together a delegation that will represent IFLRY at the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.
The Conference will take place from the 7th to the 18th of December at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, and is expected to attract more than 10.000 delegates, observers and journalists. The Conference formally includes the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 15) and the 5th Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP/MOP 5). The main goal of the conference is to agree a framework for global action on climate change beyond 2012 (please see www.cop15.dk or www.unfccc.int for details).
The goal of the IFLRY delegation is to network with officials, journalists and NGOs at the Convention and to advocate liberal ideas on the issues dealt with at the Convention. There will be regular team meetings and (social) side events for IFLRY delegates at the Convention.
Find the full call and the nomination forms in our Documents Center. Member Organizations can nominate as many representatives as they wish. The nomination form should be submitted by the 15th of October.
The form as well as all questions and comments should be sent to climatechange@iflry.org .
Liberal regards, Stephan Korte
IFLRY Climate Change Programme Manager
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[Due
to a technical problem, our standard news and events features on the front page of
our homepage are temporarily out of order. Until it is fixed, the Bureau
blog will be used for this purpose.]
Dear friends,
It is my pleasure to invite you to the 32nd General Assembly of the International Federation of Liberal Youth to be held in The Hague, Netherlands from the 12th to the 14th of November 2009
hosted with IFLRY Full Members JD and JOVD. The General Assembly will
be electing a new Bureau and dealing with a major revision of the IFLRY
Manifesto.
Find the invitation, technical information and the nomination form in the Document Center . All information related to the GA will be updated in the Document Centre. Please have a look there from time to time.
IFLRY is also offering a Seminar after the General Assembly titled "Human Trafficking: I am not for sale" in Amsterdam from November the 16st to the 21st. A separate invitation with more details can be accessed in our Document Center.
An invitation and a copy of the nomination form have been sent
to IFLRYs Member Organisations. If you are interested in attending,
please contact your Member Organisation for information regarding nominations.
Nomination forms must be sponsored by the International Officer or
President of a Member Organisation. Please submit the nomination form
for these events to events@iflry.org by appropriate deadlines.
If you have any questions after reading this invitation and the
enclosed documents, please do not hesitate to contact the Secretariat
in London or the respective Bureau member responsible for your region.
Looking forward to meeting you in the Netherlands!
Best regards,
IFLRY Bureau
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The Manifesto Committee, consisting of 10 representatives of Member
Organizations, has been working hard the last couple of weeks to make sure that
the new Manifesto can be adopted at the upcoming IFLRY
GA in the Netherlands in November. Before the
EC in Lebanon
in July, we went through an extensive consultation process with IFLRY's Member
Organizations trying to get an idea of the values that need to be emphasized
and the issues we need to consider. As a result, a first draft was produced.
More information on the Manifesto committee as well as access to the current manifesto can be found here.
Please provide your feedback and comments throughout September. You are
encouraged to do so via a comment on the blog and engage in discussion or send
your feedback to manifesto.cc@iflry.org
. In any case, please refer to the organization you are a member of.
On the 20th of September, the Manifesto Committee will update the drafts based
on the input we will have gotten until then.
Thank you and we are looking forward to your input!
IFLRY Bureau and the Manifesto Committee
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From the 5th to the 9th of August the biannual national convention of the Young Democrats of America was held.
IFLRY President Paola Silva, Secretary General Bart Woord and Bureau Member Roger Albinyana attended the event and were present at the sessions.
During the convention a special international session was held, where were present delegates from Belgium, Netherlands, Catalunya, Canada, Germany and Colombia. At the session IFLRY's work was presented and also the activities done by YDA abroad
Agenda of the convention included election of the new president and other officials, therefore Crystal Strait was elected as new YDA President. The programme also included a speech from the IFLRY President, as well as LYMEC President Aloys Rigaut, to the delegates at the general session, which you can find below:
Good morning Young Democrats of America
Muy buenos días.
It is an honor and also a pleasure for me, to be here addressing for first time a national young democrat’s convention. I want to thank my friends David Hardt and Juan Ayala because they invited me to come and gave me the chance to be here with you, and they have been truly committed with YDA’s work abroad.
Some of you might be wondering what is all this IFLRY thing about?. I can start with an anecdote. Yesterday at the passport control procedure, police officer asked me what was the purpose of my visit. I explained I was coming to the YDA Convention and he told me: “ahh, then it means that you are liberal minded. Thank you guys, you did a great job at the last elections, and we are all very happy about that”. I said, thank you, I didn´t do so much, but I’m also very happy about the results.
This is what all this is about. IFLRY was founded in 1947 and it is the international umbrella of the liberal youth organizations. Our mission is to engage young people to promote liberal values across the globe. We have around 100 member organizations from around 80 different countries of the globe. And you guys as YDA belong to this worldwide network of liberal youngsters from the five continents.
Yesterday it was a great start for my dream that is becoming true right now. Two years ago, in 2007 when the official candidate for President of the Democratic Party wasn’t defined yet, we as IFLRY came to Dallas to give you our support and to welcome you as full members of the Federation. Also two years ago I was doing my own campaign to become the first Latin American president of the Federation and also the first non-european after 60 years of IFLRY’s history. At that time, I was sitting, looking and listening all people that came here to gave us their speeches. At that time, when election campaign for the White House was starting and expected results were not even close to what did happen, I was wondering myself if I would had the chance to share with you the sweet taste of the victory as the first Latin American and the first non-european president of IFLRY.
And here we are. My dream became true. I did it and you guys rocked.
I’m here to bring you a message from millions of young liberals and democrats of the world. We all, want to congratulate you, we want to express you our respect and admiration for your outstanding and great victory at the last presidential elections, but my message, is also to let you now, that you were not only able to change the present and future of your country, but to let you know that we are aware of the challenge and that you are not alone. You have millions of young liberal and democrats to support your work.
What happened at the last election campaign, is not only a proof that yes, you can, but it also proofs that embrace diversity is the new key issue that really can make changes. You were not only able to start a change in your own country. You are also changing situation in other countries. Countries like Lebanon, Germany, or mine, Colombia.
President Obama has created a new political environment in the world. Just to take Colombia as an example, it was easy to realize the impact of Obama’s administration. When we all knew the results of the elections, and the greatest performance of the Democrats, issues like human rights and protection and respect for minorities increased their interest for the current Colombian government, and it has had an important impact on the people of my country. But also in Latin America we felt very happy to have Obama’s administration as partner to make important changes in the region.
With the result of the elections, you, the Young Democrats of America brought us hope. Hope in the sense that we saw that yes, you can, and you empower us to believe that we can do it too. Hope, because we knew that not only your country but also the world was going to be back on track. Hope because we knew that it was possible to create a better future. Hope, because you changed traditions and created a new chapter in the history of your country and the history of the humanity. But even more important than those things mentioned, you brought us hope, because we got certainty about the fact that young people are the leaders and that they have a key role building not only a promising future, but a better present for people’s live. You, the Young Democrats of America, took back your present and your future and at the same time you did it for many people all over the globe.
This certainty has created a new soul, a new spirit among youngsters in the world, not only in Latin America, but also in Asia, Africa and Europe.
You can see trough the work we do as International Federation. And those of your members that have attended our events have felt also the treasurer of your experience. We are all confident that all our hopes are, step by step, becoming a reality.
That is why I want to invite you to make this treasurer bright even more, because your experience can change the present and future of many more countries and people of the world. I want to invite you, and your coming national board to keep working on the international scenario. To use the International Federation of Liberal Youth as a tool to increase the impact of your experience, to use IFLRY as a tool to get first hand information of millions of youngsters like you, that every day face big challenges fighting for freedom and democracy in their countries. To use IFLRY to create a joint effort with other youngster from around 80 countries not only to promote liberal and democratic values, but to go even further, to globalize freedom and to make real changes in the present and future of the world.
Because we in IFLRY have the deeply belief that YDA not only works, YDA rocks.
Thank you. Muchas gracias
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[Due to a technical problem, our standard news feature on the front page is temporarily out of order. Until it is fixed, the Bureau blog shall be used for this purpose.]
The International Federation of Liberal Youth held its semiannual Executive Committee in Beirut (Lebanon) on the 17th and 18th of July. It was preceded by a seminar on religion and politics on the 16th of July. Both events were hosted and organized by the Future Movement Youth Sector, IFLRY's Full Member in Lebanon.
Around 100 delegates from different parts of the world participated in the deliberations and decision-making taking place at the Executive Committee. On the 17th of July, the participants were received by Prime Minister designate Saad Hariri who exchanged his views for almost two hours at his residence in Beirut.
Among the contributors to the events were Fredrick Federley, Member of Parliament for the Swedish Center Party, and Dr. Ronald Meinardus, Director of the Middle East programme for the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty.
Among the decisions taken by the Executive Committee are the successful applications for Candidate Membership of the Free Youth Front (Egypt), El Ghad Liberal Youth Union (Egypt) and the National Liberal Party Youth (Lebanon). The IFLRY members also spoke out on various political issues as they adopted resolutions on, among others, climate change, human rights in Iran and the US trade embargo on Cuba.
The IFLRY Bureau would like to thank the Future Movement and its Youth Sector for its fabulous support in hosting this event. It would also like to thank the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom for its support in bringing members of the Arab Union of Liberal Youth to Lebanon.
For more information, please contact the IFLRY Office (office@iflry.org).
The adopted documents at this event as well as the minutes shall be uploaded here: http://iflry.org/files/33/default.aspx .
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Once more, I had the opportunity to represent IFLRY at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, PACE, in Strasbourg 27-29 of April. During the 2nd part of the 2009 Ordinary Session, I was able to help the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) during their group meetings. The ALDE group meetings took up the preparations for the sessions, examination of the reports, appointments of spokesmen of the group in the plenary sessions and the discussions of the parliamentary elections in Albania and Bulgaria. Mr. Luc van den Brande and Mr. Thorbjørn Jaglund, candidates for Secretary General of the Council of Europe also paid visits to the group meetings. It is a bit unfortunate that no liberal candidate was running for the position as Secretary General.
In between the ALDE meetings, I went to listen to the plenary discussions. On Monday 27th, I enjoyed learning more about the protection of human rights in emergency situations and the fact that emergency powers should always be limited in time. The following day, I listened to a report on the situation of human rights defenders in Council of Europe member states. Later on, I went to listen the President of Finland, Mrs. Tarja Halonen’s address and her answers to questions from the members of the assembly. Among many subjects the President emphasized the importance of human rights, regulations to prevent violence and sexual exploration of women and children and how to survive the financial crisis with education, preparation and co-operation.
During Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, I attended two INGO seminars and a few more parliamentary assembly sessions. Two reports; Action to combat gender-based human rights violations, including abduction of women and girls and Follow-up given by Georgia and Russia to Resolution 1647 were presented by ALDE group members.
It was nice to meet the liberal politicians from all over Europe again and this time I knew more about the outcome of the meetings. I furthermore had the opportunity to take part in the Spring Asparagus Dinner on Monday evening that was arranged by the ALDE group in Erlach, Germany.
Sabine Nygrund
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