Concluding youth event of Germany’s OSCE Chairmanship to give stronger voice to young people on current security challenges

BERLIN, 11 November 2016 - As the final event in a series of outreach activities to young people across the OSCE region in 2016, Germany’s OSCE Chairmanship, in co-operation with the Schwarzkopf Foundation Young Europe, held a two-day youth conference in Berlin on 10 and 11 November. Thirty participants between the ages of 16 and 25 years from OSCE participating States gathered in the Federal Foreign Office to debate different notions of security in the OSCE region from a youth perspective.

OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who joined the conference today, underlined: “Connections between civil society play a crucial role, especially now, at a time when political estrangement in the OSCE area has drastically increased. That is why it is so important for us during our Chairmanship to promote exchange and dialogue among young people from the entire OSCE region, to give them a stronger voice and to provide them with opportunities to present their views on the urgent security questions of our time.”

The young men and women at the conference were eager to make their voice heard in the field of security policy and made active use of the opportunity to discuss their views, ideas and recommendations with German Members of Parliament (Bundestag) Jürgen Klimke and Franz Thönnes, who are both also delegates to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.  At the concluding session participants discussed their results with Ambassador Antje Leendertse, Head of the German OSCE Task Force 2016.

During the conference, the young participants also produced teaching materials for secondary school students that will be made available in the OSCE region, with the aim of involving more young people in discussions on issues of our common security and the role of the OSCE.

This conference concludes a series of outreach events that the German OSCE Chairmanship has organized over the course of the year, including two major youth forums in Vienna and Belgrade, a number of discussion events with public figures and policymakers in Germany, and two gatherings of young leaders in Berlin and Vienna. The three Special Representatives of the Chairmanship on Youth and Security –Anna-Katharina Deiniger, Paul Steiner and Milena Stošić were actively involved in all the events and will also participate in the Ministerial Council in Hamburg to support youth mainstreaming in the OSCE.

Learn more about the work of the Special Representatives on Youth and Security and the activities of the German OSCE Chairmanship:

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Twitter: @OSCEyouthSR

Leaflet: www.wien-osze.diplo.de/contentblob/4860852/Daten/6781345/160811_Flyer_Jugendaktivitten_des_dt_OSZE_Vorsitzes.pdf