The 2024 edition of the Council of Europe Days event in Hungary will continue to highlight the Council of Europe’s crucial contribution to the protection and promotion of national minority rights through its standard setting work, specifically the political rights of young people belonging to national minorities.
In May 2023, the European Youth Centre Budapest (EYCB) already hosted an event foreseeing the adoption of the Recommendation. In his welcoming remarks, Deputy Secretary General Bjørn Berge, emphasised that “A focus on young people from national minorities, encouraging them to participate in politics – And take part in the public life of their country. This is about the very fabric of a democratic society – safeguarding the rights of everyone. It is about treating national minorities as equals, who will share with all others the responsibility for shaping their shared future,” he said then.
On 4 October 2023 The Council of Europe Committee of Ministers adopted Recommendation CM/Rec(2023)9 on the active political participation of national minority youth. The Recommendation builds on the findings of the Study on the active political participation of national minority youth in Council of Europe member States.
The 2024 youth seminar and policy symposium aims at following up on last year’s event by presenting the since-then adopted Recommendation in detail to policy and decisionmakers, academic practitioners and members of the Budapest-based diplomatic community. Most importantly, it will also bring together young people belonging to national minorities from several Council of Europe member states for a 1.5 day training seminar built around the themes of the recommendation and utilizing the Council of Europe Youth Department’s know-how in facilitating meaningful youth participation on local, national and European levels.
Hungarian Parliamentary Assembly delegation leader Zsolt Németh will open the Youth Seminar on Monday 17 June to encourage national minority youth participation in politics.
Emma Lantschner, associate professor at the Centre for Southeast European Studies (CSEES) at the University of Graz – and member of the Council of Europe’s Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities – will outline key elements of the Council of Europe’s Recommendation on the Active Political Participation of National Minority youth, which had been adopted by the Committee of Ministers in October last year.
Hungarian State Secretary for Security Policy and Energy Security Mr Péter Sztáray and Council of Europe Deputy Secretary Bjørn Berge will once again deliver opening remarks for the Policy Symposium on the active political participation of national minority youth on 18 June.
For detailed information and programme consult the dedicated webpage.
