June 2009

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

It is our pleasure to invite you to the next meeting of the Executive Committee to be held in Beirut, Lebanon, from the 16th to the 18th of July 2009. The Executive Committee is hosted by IFLRY Member Organisation Future Youth and supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty. The programme on the 16th of July will include a seminar on the political situation in the Middle East, with the Executive Committee expected to start in the morning of the 17th of July.

Arrival to Beirut is foreseen for the 15th of July and departure on the 19th of July. All costs related to accommodation and meals for your stay are covered by Future Youth. The delegates will be accommodated in the Crown Plaza Beirut Hotel.

Please submit the nomination form for this event to office@iflry.org by June 5, 2009 at midnight (London time). Nominations will be considered on a rolling basis, so that you will be able to receive confirmation of your participation before the deadline.

Membership applications to be dealt with at the Executive Committee is June 5, 2009 at midnight (London time). The deadline for handing in resolutions to be dealt with at the Executive Committee is July 3, 2009 at midnight (London time).

Find the invitation, technical information and the nomination form in the read more section. All information and documents related to the Executive Committee will be published on our website. Please have a look there from time to time. If you then still have any questions, comments or suggestions after reading this invitation, please do not hesitate to contact the secretariat in London (office@iflry.org) or the respective Bureau member responsible for your region.

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 and sent to office@iflry.org .

We are looking forward to an interesting Executive Committee with your participation in Beirut!

On the 18th of May, IFLRY's first online (e-)seminar started off. Lasting until the 14th of May, the 25 participants from different parts of the world will dive deeply into the fascinating world of 'digital tools and political communication'. The event is being held with the support of the Western Balkans Project of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty. Coordinated by professional blogger Abe Olandres from the Philippines, the seminar includes contributions by IFLRY Secretary General Bart Woord, CUF President Magnus Andersson and Jason Cherniak of the Canadian liberal blogging site liblogs.ca . Some of the videos in relation to the seminar can be watched on this page: http://www.youtube.com/iflry09 .

For any questions, please get in touch with the seminar team via e-sem@iflry.org .

On the framework of the Seminar about the Latin American's challenges, Paola Silva, IFLRY President participated in the panel "Youth and Freedom, the future". As a speaker, Paola expressed the solidarity of the young liberals worldwide, and remarked about the key role that the student movement has played in the past elections in Venezuela and encourages not only the students, but also the other members of the audience to keep the fight for freedom and democracy in the country. After the speech, Paola was interviewed by radio stations and IFLRY was mentioned in the newspapers and the TV news.

After a period of absence, IFLRY's (Online) Magazine ‘The Libel’ is going to be published in printed form again. It will be presented at the upcoming Executive Committee in Lebanon in July. The editorial board is looking for your ideas, opinions and analyses about ongoing political developments in your country, region or on our commonly shared globe. As in the online version, there is no predefined theme of the edition, so we are looking for a diverse selection of items that young liberals care about.

All articles should at a minimum be 3500 characters and at a maximum 8000, including spaces. The deadline for articles is the 14th of June, when they should have been sent to libel@iflry.org, to which you can also send your questions. For questions about The Libel that are not related to this edition, please contact Editor in Chief Andy Rivas via andy@iflry.org .

On the 14th of May IFLRY President Paola Silva and Vice President Frederik Ferié represented the Federation at a meeting on the global cooperation of international liberal organizations, hosted by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty (FNF) in Berlin. FNF's international executive also hosted representatives of Liberal International (LI) and the European Liberal Democrat Party (ELDR).

Paola and Frederik presented an analysis on the status quo of the cooperation between IFLRY and FNF. The analysis also included best practices of cooperation between the organizations so far and strategic gaps where the organizations could cooperate with each other. Besides a highly interesting strategy discussion with all representatives Paola and Frederik were also able to directly discuss project ideas with individual regional directors and project managers of the Foundation. The meeting was a great opportunity and kick-off for a coordination process that will continue over the next years in order to make sure that the organizations' ressources are utilized as effective as possible.

After the meeting, Paola and Frederik joined the other participants for the convention of the Free Democratic Party in Hannover where they also gave a presentation about IFLRY's activities for scholars of FNF.

The committee which has been appointed to coordinate the process of rewriting the IFLRY manifesto and propose a new version by the General Assembly at the end of the year, can now be followed online via a special blog. Access the blog here . Leave comments and engage in discussion with the members of the committee. Soon, all member organizations shall also receive a questionnaire about their perspective on the different chapters. For more information, please contact the committee via manifesto.cc@iflry.org .

In the far north western corner of Europe, representatives of European and international youth organizations came together between the 26th and 29th of May in order to discuss social and political implications of new media, in Reykjavik, Iceland. The meeting was organized by the European Youth Forum and discussed issues of digital privacy, inclusion and new media literacy. On the 28th and 29th of May, the conclusions were shared with and the representatives took part in the ministeral conference of the Council of Europe on this issue. IFLRY Secretary General Bart Woord took part on behalf of IFLRY.

On the 26th of May, Bart - together with LYMEC Secretary General Srd Kisevic - met with representatives of Samband Ungra Framsøknarmanna (SUF), IFLRY's MO in Iceland.

On the 28th of May, the International Federation of Liberal Youth congratulated the young citizens of Azerbaijan on the anniversary of the founding of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) in 1918. The ADR was the first democratic republic in the Muslim world, including full voting rights for women and a secular constitution, earlier also than many countries in the West. Find the statement here .

Between the 4th to the 7th of June, EU citizens are called to the ballot box to elect the European Parliament. By voting, they take their destiny as European citizens into their own hands - they elect a parliament that is co-responsible for up to 70%

Read the whole article on LYMEC’s home page .

Some populist and extreme right parties are claiming the concept of Liberty, a tendency that occurs in all parts of Europe. One can see for example how in Belgium the extreme right party, Vlaams Belang, is claiming the concept as freedom…

Read the whole article on LYMEC’s home page .

On 27th of May, the most important annual event of the Liberal Network of Latin America (RELIAL) will take place in Caracas, Venezuela joining the celebration of the 25th anniversary of its member institution CEDICE-Libertad…

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