“Youth work is one of the strongest tools we have to try to improve the lives of young people,” said Antonia Wulff at the Enter! project meeting. “What young people lack today is the feeling that the community is interested in them and cares about them – that there is any community at all.”
The theme for the 2011 Council of Europe award, co-organised with the European Youth Press, was media freedom and was open to all journalists under the age of 30 from 47 member states.
“The protagonists of the “Arab Spring”, who have forged rapid links via social networks and the Internet, want democratic change founded on trust and transparency: they aspire to dignity, freedom, social justice and respect for human rights in a law-based state. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe salutes the courage and supports the commitment of the emerging pro-democracy movements in the Arab states which still display a great diversity of situations.”
A Foreign & Commonwealth Office report states: “Although we broadly support and welcome the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, we continue to have some difficulties with certain articles which would require a significant change in Government policy and/or legislative reform in the UK.
The Paris hearing, organised by the Committee on Social, Health and Family Affairs, will focus in particular on coercive sterilisations of Romani women, convicted sex offenders and transgender persons.
