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Strategy Development
Meeting of the Local Agenda 21 Youth Parliament is supposed to be an
important cornerstone in the sense that it provided the participants to
make a situation analysis of the current position of the Parliament at
the national and international platforms.
According to some
outputs;
·
One of the
objectives of the LA-21 Program was to “enable the participation
of young people in local decision-making mechanisms of the project
provinces through the establishment of local youth councils and youth
centers” and within 27 provinces, youth have established local
youth councils while within 19 provinces youth successfully opened local
youth centers.
·
Another objective
of the LA-21 Program was to “introduce the ongoing youth
activities within the local youth centers and youth councils to the
international platforms” and these activities have been
introduced via the documentary films in all international meetings that
Youth Association for Habitat and Agenda 21 has participated including
“World Summit on Sustainable Development”, “World Summit for the
Information Society”, “Istanbul+5 of UN-HABITAT”, etc.
·
Another objective
of the LA-21 Program was to “facilitate the formation of the basis
of a future National Youth Council within the framework of the Local
Agenda 21 National Program through the spread of local youth councils
and centers”. Following this objective, an e-group has already
been activated among the LA-21 Youth Parliament representatives and a
national cooperation network among the local youth platforms has already
been established.
The participants also
discussed the structure of a future National Youth Council of
Turkey. The results drawn from these discussions were as
follows:
·
Local Agenda 21
Youth Parliament should form the basis of the National Youth Council of
Turkey. National Youth NGOs, youth wings of political parties and
student councils of universities and high schools should also be
represented in the National Youth Council. The Executive Board of the
Council should be formed by the elected representatives according to the
certain defined quotas. For the identification of the number of
representatives, LA-21 Youth Parliament activities will be taken into
consideration.
·
LA-21 Youth
Parliament observes some ongoing activities about the establishment of a
National Youth Council in Turkey by a group of Ankara-centered NGOs.
These activities cannot be regarded as democratic and do not envisage
certain principles and values, therefore this initiative should not be
supported by LA-21 Youth Parliament.
Another outcome of the
meeting was the adoption of a declaration condemning the terrorist
attacks that took place in Istanbul, Turkey in November 2003. The
declaration also stressed the reaction against the cancellation of
international meetings and the calls for “departure from Turkey” after
the terrorist attacks in Istanbul.
Finally, the
participants defined the common strategies of local youth platforms
prior to the local elections that were to take place in March 2004.
According to these strategies;
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All mayor candidates
should sign a protocol underlining that they will support the LA-21
youth activities and the establishment of local youth councils.
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We should identify the
principles on “what kind of a mayor we would like to see” and
publicize these principles.
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We should circulate a
survey among the young people in the cities we represent on “What kind
of a mayor you would like to see?” and publicize the results.
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We should inform the
municipal council members every month about the activities of the
LA-21 Youth Parliament.
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