Youth Leaders from Political Parties Agree to Work Together on Common Youth Issues

The Coalition for Promotion of Women, Youth and Minorities in Politics, in cooperation with youth forums of political parties, organised today the Forum of all Youth Leaders with the aim to seek ways to increase the cooperation and communication between the organisations on common youth issues.

The Forum was hosted and moderated by Altin Hazizaj, Director of Children's Human Rights Centre of Albania-CRCA, a major child and youth rights organisation in the country. The Forum was supported by the Olof Palme International Centre and SIDA.

"We took our time to organise this Forum, because we wanted to be sure that the aim of cooperation between youth leaders from political parties was there without us pushing for it. I have to say that this Forum surpassed all my expectations. The youth leaders, from all political spectrum, face common problems and they want to find common solutions�, said Hazizaj in his opening remarks.

The Forum was attended by youth leaders of all Youth Forums of Parliamentary Political parties. In addition, the hosts invited several other civic society organisations, such as the Albanian Youth Parliament, Albanian Students Union and Mjaft Movement, to attend the meeting and provide their contribution.

The forum was divided in two parts. The first one focused on the problems that Youth Political Forums face when dealing with the political party, where they contribute. While the second part focused on identifying joint issues for cooperation during 2007. Among the areas of cooperation that were identified were: youth training, youth budgeting, joint campaign on one issue of concern for Albanian youth.

Also all the parties agreed to start from January 2007 a tradition of Youth Leaders Cafe Meeting, where all the youth political leaders meet every month informally to talk about issues of cooperation and activities they can organise in the following month. The First Cafe meeting is to be hosted by CRCA.