World Youth Movement for Democracy

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WYMD Meets at the WMD Fifth Assembly in Kyiv

On April 6-9, 2008, over 500 democracy activists, practitioners, and scholars from 104 countries gathered in Kyiv, Ukraine, for the Fifth Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy (WMD) under the theme "Making Democracy Work: From Principles to Performance".

The Assembly participants were addressed by the Ukraine's First Lady, Katerina Yushchenko and the President Viktor Yushchenko himself. The keynote speakers included such prominent figures as Alejandro Toledo, former President of Peru; Maina Kiai, chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights; and Myroslava Gongadze, founder of the Gongadze Foundation, named for her husband, a journalist who was murdered in 2000 in Ukraine.

During the four days of the Assembly, which included two plenary sessions and some 45 workshops and panel discussions, participants from around the world examined global and regional challenges to the development of democracy and the need to deliver on promises of democratic transitions.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORTS

WYMD Functional Workshop (pdf, 108 Kb)

Experiential Learning: Democracy and Human Rights Education for Youth (pdf, 48 Kb)

Post-Assembly Release (pdf, 48 Kb)

On April 8, in the framework of the Assembly the functional workshop of the World Youth Movement for Democracy was organized. The workshop, moderated by Anastasia Nikitina, advisory member of the WYMD Working Committee, brought together about 30 participants representing youth democracy groups and the organizations working with youth from all the parts of the world.

Formerly, the Secretariat mainly played the role of facilitating communication and information exchange between WYMD participants and involving new young people into democratic movement. But according to the recent decisions of the Working Committee (the WYMD's steering body) the new Secretariat staff sees its mission in developing the Movement as a network of networks, both topical and regional, which will help to fill it with real activity.

A list of project ideas supposed to be developed either globally or regionally was presented to the participants, who were also invited to share their ideas in working groups and contribute with their proposals on how to make the work of WYMD more effective and develop it as a strong community of activists worldwide.

The key dilemma for WYMD voiced up at the workshop is either to be merely an appendage to the "adult" World Movement (similar to the majority of existing political parties' youth chapters), or to create a new generation of activists with their own agenda that can then be also proposed to the "adult" movement.

The discussion revealed that the participants think that the WYMD must have its own agenda and as a youth movement can be more radical in comparison with the "adult" one. It was also pointed out that the Movement should make wider use of the already existent mechanisms at the regional level where possible.

Full report of the functional workshop, as well as that of the thematic workshop "Experiential Learning: Democracy and Human Rights Education for Youth", also conducted by the WYMD, can be downloaded using the links above.