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297
youth delegates
and observers from 75 provinces participated in the Local Agenda 21
National Youth Parliament Establishment Summit.
The activities of the
Local Agenda 21 Program and its process until the 19 May 2004 Summit
were introduced to all participations right after they gathered in the
meeting room in 18 May 2004 on Tuesday night.
According to this;
The new participations
have been informed about the structure of Local Agenda 21 Program.
Discussions took place about the current situation of the program and
the topics of the working units. Expected results of these working units
were opened to discussions during the meeting. Regions and the provinces
located in these regions were determined concerning the formation of the
facilitating group. At the same time, the aims were defined as
transmitting demands to The Grand National Assembly of Turkey regarding
the formation youth policies and maintaining the support of the
assembly. Finally, the outputs of the meeting were envisaged to be
presented as a draft law.
On 19th May
Wednesday, in the morning session, the activities of the Local Agenda 21
Youth Councils carried out in their provinces were presented, the
provinces were introduced, the activities were evaluated and Local
Agenda 21 National Youth Parliament representatives were introduced each
other.
The official ceremony
was realized in the afternoon. Sadık Yakut, the deputy
representative of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey; Kayhan
Kavas, General Director of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
Section for Local Administration; Hansın Doğan, Project
Assistant in the UN Development Program Country Office; Sadun
Emrealp, Local Agenda 21 National Program Coordinator;
Levent Koç, Local Initiatives Coordinator of Youth Association
for Habitat and Agenda 21 and Merve Özlem Ekim, Ankara
Yenimahalle Youth Council Executive Committee Member made the opening
speeches, respectively.
After the opening,
participants split into four working units.
The themes of the
working units were as follows:
-
Formation of Local
Agenda 21 National Youth Parliament Working Principles,
-
Formation of 2004-2005
Working Plan of the Local Agenda 21 National Youth Parliament
-
Discussion of the
Civil Youth Council Joint Statutes
-
The role of the Local
Agenda 21 National Youth Parliament within the process of the
formation of a National Youth Council
The working units
continued during the morning sessions on 20th May, Tuesday.
In the afternoon session, the panel discussion titled “The role of the
Grand National Assembly of Turkey for the Formulation of an Integrated
Youth Policy in Turkey” took place.
Within the panel
discussion, chaired by Ms. Yasemin Uyar, Executive Committee
Member of Youth Association for Habitat and Agenda 21 and the member of
the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe; the panelists
were the representatives of the political parties represented in the
Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Ersönmez Yarbay, the parliamentarian
of AKP from Ankara, Bihlun Tamaylıgil, the parliamentarian of CHP and
Obuhan Obaoğlu, the vice-president of the Youth Wing of DYP, joined the
panel and reported their views about the role of The Grand National
Assembly of Turkey for creating an integrated youth policy, within the
framework of their party programs.
After the panel
discussion, the members of the Local Agenda 21 National Youth Parliament
Facilitating Group were elected. Facilitating Group in LA-21 National
Youth Parliament consists of one permanent and one substitute members
designated by one institution in the city selected within the region it
belongs to among 14 regions, determined with reference to the NUTS
system, a statistical system practiced for regional development policy
making procedures of the Turkish Prime Ministry State Planning
Organization. For the election of facilitating group members who will
carry out activities for enhancing the institutional capacities of local
youth councils, enabling the involvement of provinces that have not
initiated youth activities in the LA-21 process, transferring
information from national level to local level and from local level to
national level and promoting the coordination and cooperation among
local youth councils; the delegates represented within 14 regions
actualized their regional elections and identified one permanent and one
substitute members for the facilitating group.
After the elections,
workshops outputs were discussed. The outputs were finalized through the
evaluation of suggestions and opinions about results.
The outputs of the two
working units “Formation of LA-21 National Youth Parliament Working
Principles” and “Civil Youth Council Joint Statutes” were adopted while
it has been decided as appropriate to consider the outputs of the two
remaining working units as a draft and discuss them in the next Local
Agenda 21 Parliament General Assembly Meeting, which will be organized
in August 2004. At the end of the meeting, whole decisions were
re-evaluated; necessary corrections were made and submitted to the
approval of the representatives of the Local Agenda 21 provinces and
cities. The National Youth Declaration was adopted unanimously and
signed by the LA-21 representatives.
Local Agenda 21 National
Youth Parliament Establishment Ceremony was organized with the
participation of 20 parliamentarians, media and Local Agenda 21 National
Youth Parliament delegates in the Ceremony Room of The Grand National
Assembly on 21st May 2004 at between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm.
After the documentary of Local Agenda 21 youth activities is shown, the
declaration of the Local Agenda 21 National Youth Parliament
Establishment Summit was delivered by Berha Timar, the representative of
Kars Youth Council and Çağlar Karakaş, the representative of Edirne
Youth Council.
The
visit to Anıtkabir took place after the establishment ceremony held in
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Local Agenda 21 National Youth
Parliament Establishment Summit came to an end accordingly on 21st
May 2004. |
