October 2008

Please forward to other young liberals
(or liberals young at heart)

From the 5th to the 7th of December, young liberals from all across the world will convene in Kiev for the Executive Committee (EC) and the 31st Extraordinary General Assembly (GA) of the International Federation of Liberal Youth.

The EC and GA promises to become extremely interesting, featuring speakers and panel debaters from a variety of backgrounds, touching upon themes like democracy, human rights and self-determination. As the centre of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution in 2004, Kiev is also inspirational to discussion.

The last day for sending in nominations for the EC and GA to the IFLRY Office is October 30, 2008; that is today! To find the necessary documents, the formal invitation, agenda and tentative programme please go to the Document Centre on our website. For any questions, please get in touch with the IFLRY Office (office@iflry.org).

Prior to the EC and GA, the IFLRY Seminar "Young Active Citizens: Today for Tomorrow" will be held in Kiev, Ukraine on December 1-4, 2008. The participants have been accepted and the focus of the seminar is on empowering youth with skills to involve and maintain interest in politics amongst fellow young people. More information on the seminar can be found in the Document Centre on the IFLRY website.

IFLRY VP, Jelena Spasovic, is running for Advisory Council of Council of Europe Directorate for Youth and Sport. The election for representatives in the AC will be held during the European Youth Forum General Assembly (YFJ GA) in Rotterdam on the 14th of November 2008. IFLRY has a strong history in this position and has been an actor in the process of creating youth policies of Council of Europe. This YFJ GA, IFLRY has decided to run a candidate for a term with the Advisory Council. IFLRY will appeal to the members of the European Youth Forum to lend their support for our candidate for the AC, based on our continued hard work, contributions, and respect for the work of the Council of Europe.

In order to professionalize the work of IFLRY the bureau has decided to include a Media Strategy into the overall Communications Plan. IFLRY Vice President Frederik Ferie has been tasked with developing and managing this strategic approach during the tenure of this bureau. As it is very difficult reach relevant international media with a generalized approach, IFLRY's strategy to become more visible in press, radio, TV and online publications will take a more direct route. By maintaining an ongoing relationship with individual journalists, it will be easier to get our messages and statements across, that so far remained largely unnoticed by professional media.

Frederik presented IFLRY's new Media Strategy at the European Youth Forum's Press and Communications Meeting in Madrid, Spain. He also had the chance to gather a lot of input from discussions with other Media Officers from several national youth councils and international NGO that participated at the event. Furthermore, Frederik could discuss IFLRY's Media Strategy with PR-professionals, Spokespersons and journalists that had been invited to speak at the event. Especially these professionals acknowledged the difficult situation IFLRY faces as an international political youth organization. However, many of the think that the strategy is innovative and well-fitted for our purposes - and thus will hopefully be effective in the future.

Paola Silva, President of IFLRY, attended a high level meeting in Gijon(Spain), September 25 to 30, which gathered 30 young leaders - representatives from the most important youth organizations from Ibero-America. The meeting was set to prepare the Ibero American Summit of Heads of State that will be held in El Salvador at the end of October. IFLRY has taken part in all preparatory events connected to the Summit for the first time this year. This Summit will focus on the topic of Youth and Development and for this reason it was remarkable that a liberal perspective was included in the debate.

In the core of this meeting was the creation of the Ibero-American Youth Platform with the main objective to follow up on the commitments made by states but also to promote a youth perspective in the countries of the region.

IFLRY Secretary General Bart Woord met with a group of high-level liberal leaders from 5 Latin American countries during their visit to various European institutions in Brussels, organized by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty. In a presentation on regional and global approaches to liberal youth cooperation Bart explained the value of transborder partnerships between liberal youth organizations. The future of the regional platform Juventudes Liberales de las Americas (JULIA) was discussed as well as the relationship between youth organizations and mother parties. Among the participants were representatives from the parties of two IFLRY Full Members: Libertarian Youth from Costa Rica and JLRA from Paraguay.

Jelena Spasovic, IFLRY VP attended LYMEC Young Leaders Meeting held in Varna, Bulgaria and hosted by Youth Movement for Rights and Freedoms (YMRF) and Liberal Youth Assembly of NMSS from Bulgaria. Presidents and Vice-Presidents from around 20 of LYMEC member organizations gathered to discuss: "What future for Europe; with or without the Lisbon Treaty?". During YLM, young leaders also attended the 10th anniversary of YMRF in Shumen. This was a great opportunity to get better acquainted with one of our own MOs and enjoy a celebration with more than 5,000 their members. As always, YLM was a great opportunity for IFLRY to discuss and share views with Member Organizations and its Regional Member Organization LYMEC.

The IFLRY Bureau is calling upon all member organizations to consider hosting either the mid-year Executive Committee (June-July) or the end-of-year General Assembly (November-December) in 2009. These events are organized by one or more host organizations in close cooperation with the IFLRY Bureau and Secretariat. Preference is accorded to those organizations that are able to raise domestic funds for the event. There are no geographic requirements for the venue.

If your organization is interested in hosting one of these events and you would like to receive more information, please contact IFLRY Secretary General Bart Woord (bart@iflry.org).

Lena Haglund, the IFLRY Intern assisted at the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) held in Strasbourg September 29 to October 3. The topics of the PACE ranged from the conflict in Georgia to development in countries such as Cyprus and Bosnia and Herzegovina; the financial crisis and a renewal of the youth agenda of Council of Europe.

Jelena Spasovic, IFLRY Vice President, will be running as IFLRY's candidate for the Advisory Council of Council of Europe. The elections are held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, November 14 2008.

"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.", Jelena Spasovic says in her blog.

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.

Liberal Youth South Asia is organizing the South Asia Youth Summit (SAYS) to provide a platform for youth in the age group of 18-30 to interact, debate and understand various issues confronting the region from a liberal perspective. SAYS 2008 being an annual event, hosted by Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR), envisions a democratic and peaceful South Asia with open borders emphasizing the role of youth in restructuring the society.

The Young Leaders Meeting (YLM), took place in Varna, Bulgaria, from 9 to 12 October. The theme of this year's YLM was "What future for Europe; with or without the Lisbon Treaty? ". At the meeting the young leaders reassured their support for the Lisbon Treaty and also showed confidence in a pragmatical solution to the Irish no.

The treaty was put into practice by simulating a European Council meeting on a new (fictional) Georgia crisis, whereby Russia would seek to include Georgia's separatist Republics into its Federation provoking a new war with Georgia.

The resolution stemming out from this simulation stressed the territorial sovereignty of Georgia's territory, called to end all hostilities, disarm all irregular forces, and respect Geneva conventions, and proposed the start of peace talks under the helm of the EU on the future status of the separatist Republics.
Following the continuing plunge of stock markets on 10 October, young liberal leaders however interrupted their normal programme to formulate a common response to the financial crisis. They notably outlined that liberalism is not to blame for the current crisis, noting that free market needs good regulation to properly function, and that socialism is no alternatives.

The Liberal International 181st Executive Committee meeting will take place in Bangkok, Thailand from 12 to 14 December 2008, in conjunction with the 15th Anniversary of LI affiliated network the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD).

Participants will be offered a Conference under the theme, "Strengthening Democratic Reform and the Rule of Law: Constraints and Continuing Challenges in Asia and Beyond". Prior to the Executive Committee meeting, on 11 December 2008, LI and CALD offer an optional "Burma Fact-Finding Mission"" to the Thai-Burmese border. The mission includes a visit to the Maela Refugee Camp in Mae-Sot, and meetings with several exiled Burmese democrats and human rights advocates.

Second Issue 2008
A new edition of IFLRY's online magazine has recently been published. It includes a variety of articles, particularly from prominent Latin American authors who reflect on the state of liberalism and democracy in their continent. The new edition features more graphical illustrations to improve the articles' readability.

We are welcoming contributions from all around the world on a multitude of topics. If you want to write an article for the new edition of the magazine, please contact the Libel's Editor-in-Chief Andy Rivas (andy@iflry.org).

IFLRY, the International Federation of Liberal Youth, is an international political umbrella organisation promoting cooperation among youth and student organisations to spread liberal values.
Learn more about IFLRY > Member organizations >

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