Celebrating the African Youth Day – 1 November, 2010
Since 2006, the 1st of November has become a milestone for Africa and a remarkable date for its youth. On this day, Africa and the world celebrate the African Youth Day. This day stands for active youth participation and respect for human rights, especially those of young people, as it is the commemoration of the official launching of the African Youth Charter by HE Prof. Alpha Oumar Konaré, Chairperson of the African Union Commission during the 5th African Development Forum in November 2006 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The African Youth Day encompasses not only a very important celebration of a continent and its youth, but also underscores the firm conviction that African youth is one of Africa’s most valuable resources. This year, the African Youth Day takes the benefit of being celebrated in the framework of the International Year of Youth: Dialogue and Mutual Understanding, as proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly through resolution A/RES/64/134 in December 2009.
The African Youth Charter, promoted by the African Union who contributes to the empowerment of African Youth and youth leadership, encourages the participation of youth in the relevant processes and provides a legal, technical and value-based framework for positive change. These values are in particular underlined in the words and spirit of the Charter and bring out principles of Freedom, Peace, Integrity, Respect for Human Rights and Environment, Culture, Participation and Responsibility. These principles are core elements of global youth rights and of youth cooperation and offer excellent opportunities for intercultural dialogue, mutual understanding and strategic partnerships.
In line with the outcomes of the Africa Europe Youth Summit in 2007 and the Africa-EU Strategic Partnership - a framework created by the 2nd EU-Africa Heads of States Summit - the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe convey its committed contribution to Africa-Europe youth cooperation and recognises the key role of African youth in this dynamic process of developing and strengthening youth organisations and youth movements. As a follow-up of the Africa-Europe Youth Summit, the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe has been developing and implementing an Africa-Europe Youth Cooperation Programme in partnership with key governmental and non-governmental actors in Africa and Europe, which includes the European Youth Forum, the Pan African Youth Union, international youth organisations, the African Union and the European Union.
This programme has been focusing on:
Ø The establishment of the African University on Youth and Development
Ø Implementation of Sub-regional seminars on development of youth policies and the African Youth Charter;
Ø Organisation of Africa-Europe training courses for youth organisations, trainers and African Diaspora in Europe;
Ø Initiating a mapping exercise of Africa-Europe youth cooperation/work;
Ø Providing seed funding for youth participation and youth exchanges;
Ø Coordination of institutional follow-up meetings with key youth actors from Africa and Europe and representatives of implementing agencies and institutions of the Africa-Europe Youth Strategy and Monitoring Group meetings.
http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/nscentre/GE/JMA/JMA_Youth_EN.asp
The North-South Centre of the Council of Europe joins in the celebration of the Africa Youth Day by reaffirming its commitment to work in framework of the Africa-Europe Youth Cooperation and for a prosperous future of the African youth and the African continent. In this vein, the NSC would like to express its best wishes for a very successful implementation of and fruitful outcomes on the next Africa-Europe Youth Summit which will be held in Libya on 26-27 November 2010, in the context of the up-coming 3rd Africa-EU Summit of Heads of State and Government.
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