European Youth Conference blogs

One Man Fight

Serhan Karatas — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 16:23:55 +0200

Violence against women is the greatest human rights scandal of our times. From birth to death, in times of peace as well as war, women face discrimination and violence at the hands of the state, the community and the family.

Amnesty International is running the Campaign "Stop the Violence Against Women" since 2003. Now the campaign is continuing with a more interesting slogan "One Man Fight". You can visit;
http://www.onemanfight.net/

Join the campaign and act for human rights...

http://web.amnesty.org/actforwomen/index-eng

With best wishes for a better world....
Another world is possible, as long as we want it to be.

Can Cartoons cause serious interruptions in the inter-religious dialogue?

Serhan Karatas — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 23:38:37 +0100

AEGEE Europe is deeply concerned about the recent developments, beginning with the cartoon drawings that were published in Denmarkâ€™s Jyllands-Posten newspaper. Some of the cartoons included the portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban and another showed him as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by two women shrouded in black.

In Islam it is forbidden to depict the Prophet Mohammed in any way. Furthermore, the depiction of Mohammed in suggestive cartoons was a serious infringement on the beliefs of many Muslims, and thus, highly offensive.

In many western cultures, cartoons are meant to be ironic, satiric, sarcastic, and exaggerated. They are neither fundamentalist nor politically correct. They are a tradition in many European countries and many people, therefore, defend this as a freedom of speech.

Caricature Crisis

Serhan Karatas — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 23:46:00 +0100

In fact I was expecting to see a discussion on the caricature crissis in this web site, but I am surprised not to see any reactions. I would like to hear different opinions on the issue.

Here is the recent joint statement by UN, EU and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/sg2105.doc.htm
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Joint un, European Union, Islamic conference statement shares â€˜anguishâ€™ of muslim world at mohammed caricatures, but condemns violent response

Following is the text of a joint statement issued today by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan; the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu; and the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union, Javier Solana:

Speech given by James Doorley

maximecerutti — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 16:11:25 +0100

I am very happy to provide you here with the speech given by James Doorley, the Vice President of the European Youth Forum at the last meeting of the Youth Working Party of the EU Council of Ministers for Youth.

e-mails

fulani — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 13:32:49 +0100

I am just wondering what happened to the e-mails of the participants that was on the webpage.Could be very useful to have

Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims in the EU-Report by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights

Serhan Karatas — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 17:33:19 +0100

I wanted to share the report by International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights with you.

With best,
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In March 2005 the Report by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (following Â– IHF) on intolerance and discrimination against Muslims in the EU has been published. "The purpose of this report "as it is noted in the preface of the document" is to raise awareness about intolerance and discrimination against Muslims in the EU, as well as to highlight problems with respect to the exercise of freedom of religion by Muslims in the region. The report covers eleven EU member states: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom". IHF expressed its concern toward the atmosphere of growing distrust against Muslims that has developed since September 11 threatens to undermine efforts to promote integration and further increase the vulnerability of Muslims to human rights violations and marginalization.

Make Some Noise

Serhan Karatas — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 16:48:12 +0100

Dear friends,

In the first working group sessions some of our friends had come up with the working group idea "Music & Human Rights", then it evolved... But here is the campaign with Black Eyed Peas, The Cure, Avril Lavigne and, of course, JohN LennoN...

Amnesty International is launching a new campaign "Make Some Noise". Please feel free to support the campaign. Here is news about the campaign.

http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGACT300212005

You can access the campaign through the website.

http://www.amnesty.org/noise

Interference and influence on the final declaration!

Ali Hamidian — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 12:02:08 +0100

We, young anti-racist participants of the conference "European Youth in Action for Diversity and Tolerance" held on November 2005 in Berlin, would like to express our great dissatisfaction with the interference and influence by adult representatives from an outsider organization and some organizers of the conference on the final declaration and action plan that was handed over to European politicians and representatives of European institutions. Although we are satisfied with the conference in general, we believe that it is important to be honest to the young anti-racist participants and let them know about the fact that the editorial board was put under pressure under certain moments during the editing process. It is our strong belief that this honesty will reduce the critical voices and create faith in the conference and its organizers. Therefore, we kindly ask you to take necessary actions in order to prevent similar incidents of this nature taking place at future conferences by publishing and commenting on this statement on the conference homepage. We hope that our constructive criticism will help to improve future conferences further.

Young people as peer leaders for Diversity and Tolerance

Luis Manuel Pinto — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 16:53:47 +0100

Luis Manuel Pinto is European Coordinator of the European Peer Training Organisation (EPTO) / Youth Initiative of the European Jewish Information Centre (CEJI)
EPTO is a network of organisations and individuals who are working with peer education on diversity issues. EPTOâ€™s educational programmes are used around Europe in schools and other youth environments.

The idea of peer
Socially, what defines oneâ€™s identity is associated with oneâ€™s sex or gender, nationality, religious belief, physical ability, ethnic background, sexual orientation, social class or age group. A â€˜peerâ€™ is in the broader sense of the term, someone that share one or more descriptors of your identity that place you in certain society sector or group. In the youth work context, the term â€˜peerâ€™ has been mainstreamed focusing on the age factor, meaning that a peer is someone from your age group and surrounding community with which one shares common references.

Some recommendations for future conference

Luis Manuel Pinto — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 16:39:17 +0100

Dear all,

I would like to submit some personal recommendations for the organisers of the event which according to my perspective could improve future conferences with similar format.

I would like to acknowledge all the hard work that was put into the last conference and say a big â€œthank youâ€ to everyone participating and acknowledge the organisers for the investment in the cause and in young people. It is an investment that should go on.

In order not to exhaust anyone with extended text, I present a summary of the recommendations which are followed by its further developed, for the ones who may be interested.