• UNESCO Associated Schools

European-North American Conference on Youth Participation

22 – 24 September 2011, Vienna, Austria

Participation and co-determination for youth within the UNESCO realm – this was the theme of the European-North American Conference on Youth Participation. The conference, which was organised by the Austrian Commission for UNESCO, took place from 22 – 24 September 2011 in Vienna, Austria. It brought together 50 young men and women from 24 European and North American countries (Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland).

When working towards sustainable development in the economic, environmental, social, and cultural realms, youth must be taken into account. Their energy, motivation, and vision constitute essential assets to successfully address these challenges in a fast-paced world. In accordance with this International Year; the ideas, experiences and visions of the European-North American Conference on Youth Participation will focus on the UNESCO fields of competence. This goes hand-in-hand with the long-standing UNESCO tradition of working in partnership with young people.

The conference resulted in the participants formulating and adopting concrete recommendations directed towards youth and youth organisations, UNESCO, National Commissions, and governments. They were then passed on to the respective bodies within UNESCO and National Commissions. Furthermore, the recommendations will be presented at the UNESCO Youth Forum 2011.

• In order to get involved, youth and youth organisations should get in touch with UNESCO National Commissions. More detailed suggestions are given in various forms.
• UNESCO National Commissions are recommended to form and activate a Youth Advisory Panel, or an association of this kind, that is also represented as an equal member in the governing board of the respective National Commission and other committees/panels/task-forces/etc.
• Governments are encouraged to accumulate further funds for UNESCO National Commissions in order to finance youth related activities, as well as finance youth delegates to participate at relevant youth forums, conferences, and gatherings taking place within the UNESCO context.
• UNESCO has suggested a number of possibilities on how to give meaning to the priority of youth, including; providing adequate human and financial resources for youth programmes and activities, acknowledging youth mainstreaming, and reforming the UNESCO Youth Forum into a Youth Commission, which would be an integral part of the General Conference.

The Conference was financed by UNESCO (Participation Programme) and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture.