The Council of Europe and the Azerbaijani authorities in charge for youth policy at national level have been cooperating in the field of youth policy since the early nineties before Azerbaijan became a member state of the Council of Europe. This cooperation aims to support Azerbaijan in the development of youth policy in line with the Council of Europe standards, principles and approaches.

 

 Specific bi-lateral co-operation activities between the Council of Europe Youth Department and the Ministry of Youth and Sport of the Republic of Azerbaijan were included for the first time in the Council of Europe Action Plan for Azerbaijan 2014-2016 and continued in the Council of Europe Action Plan for Azerbaijan 2018-2021.

 Since then, cooperation has been significantly strengthened, especially with a focus on supporting non-governmental youth organisations in their role as actors in the implementation of the Council of Europe's Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education. Both projects included standards setting with public authorities through expert advice and training; capacity-building activities and the provision of educational resources in Azerbaijani language for promoting human-rights education and democratic youth participation and for supporting the implementation of relevant Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers, namely “on Access of young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods to social rights”, “on Access of young people to rights” and “on Youth work”. The activities were held in different regions of Azerbaijan and at the European Youth Centres in Strasbourg and Budapest. 

 The first youth project “Capacity-building of youth leaders and activists from Azerbaijan, on human rights education and democratic citizenship” was implemented in 2017-2018, and included a Long-term training course on human rights education and democratic citizenship with youth leaders and activists from the Republic of Azerbaijan. A training course on democratic citizenship and youth participation for specialists from authorities working with young people and for representatives of youth non-governmental organisations from Azerbaijan and a National Forum on Human Rights Education, as well as the translation of relevant manuals into Azerbaijani, were also implemented in this period.

 The project “Supporting the development of participative and rights-based youth policy and values-based youth work” covered the period 2019-2022 and continued the efforts of the first project by engaging all levels of youth work and youth policy in Azerbaijan, including youth houses, youth centres and local youth organisations in developing participatory youth projects and programmes. This project strongly contributed to improving in creation the conditions for building network/pool of youth trainers and educators in human rights education, supported non-formal education activities in Azerbaijani language, and brought the Azerbaijani youth policy agenda closer to the Council of Europe approaches and principles.

The youth projects in the Council of Europe Action Plan for Azerbaijan were based on the experience of working with youth workers, youth leaders and young people on the integration of citizenship and human rights education into youth work in Azerbaijan. The adoption of the 2030 strategy of the Council of Europe youth sector has strengthened the case for a closer integration of the triangle youth participation, youth policy and youth work as a basis for qualitative youth interventions.

 

 Key activities in 2017-2018

  • Compass Long-term Training course on Human Rights Education and Democratic Citizenship with Youth Leaders and Activists
  • Have Your Say! Training on Democratic Citizenship and Youth Participation for Specialists from Authorities Working with Young People and for Representatives of Non-governmental Youth Organisations (a 50/50 training)
  • Translation and publication of Compass, a manual for human rights education with young people
  • Translation and publication of Have Your Say!, a manual on the revised European charter on the participation of young people in local and regional life
  • National Forum in human rights education on the occasion of the launch of the Azerbaijani versions of Compass and Have your say!

        

Logo of the Council of Europe Youth Department