Presentation

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Walter Schwimmer, has put forward an initiative regarding involving young people in conflict resolution issues in a certain number of ongoing conflicts in Europe.

Essentially, the concept is as follows: Young people from opposing sides in certain conflict areas will be brought together to seek solutions to conflicts in other regions. The solutions that they might come up with could then be presented to their counterparts from the region concerned with a view to discussing their application, whilst providing at the same time a possible mirror onto the conflict in the region from which they come. Such an exercise, whilst not being designed to bear immediate political fruit, should permit the young people involved to take the knowledge and experience gained back to their home countries with a view to acting as multipliers both amongst their peers and vis-à-vis their political classes in promoting peaceful solutions to the conflict concerning their community or country.

The young people to participate in this seminar would be approximately 30 in total number, and would come from the following communities: Israelis, Palestinians (who will discuss Cyprus); Armenians, Azerbaijanis (who will discuss the Middle East); Cypriots (from North and South) (who will discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh issue).

Discussions in the working sessions on each conflict, to be held on 1-2 April 2003, will be guided by a moderator who will assist the participants in their attempts to come up with solutions for the conflicts. The three moderators who have accepted to fill this role are people with long-standing experience and expertise in each of the conflicts. Their names are as follows:

For Cyprus: Dr Ron Fisher (Canada): Professor of International Relations, in the Division of International Peace and Conflict Resolution, School of International Service, American University, Washington DC, USA; for the Middle East (Israel / Palestine): Dr Marianne Heiberg (Norway): Senior Research Associate, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Oslo, Norway; for Nagorno-Karabakh (Armenia / Azerbaijan): David Loyd Stern (UK): Caucasus and Central Asia correspondent of the Financial Times newspaper, London, UK.

The outcomes of the discussions of the three groups will be presented for discussion to a Round Table to be held on the afternoon of Wednesday 2 April 2003, during the Spring 2003 session of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. This discussion will take place in the presence of and with the active participation of parliamentarians who are themselves involved in the conflict areas under discussion. It will be of importance for all the participants to hear their views on the role of young people in peace-building, and for the young people themselves (and the parliamentarians present at the Round Table) to have the benefits of their thoughts on the solutions that they propose.

Thereby it is also hoped to give the whole exercise a certain resonance in the media, whilst giving the young people involved an incentive to assist in promoting the peace process in their different communities.