Saturday, 9 October 2004
Today a meeting of the Board of Trustees of All-Armenian International Youth Center Fund has been held at RA Prime Minister's Office. Armen Sinanyan, Executive Director of the Fund, briefed Prime Minister A. Margaryan and the members of the Board on the summary report of the July 24-29 second youth conference, which detailed conference proceedings, including the reports and the minutes of plenary sessions, panel discussions and workshops (ref: Diaspora and globalization processes, culture and national identity, the youth and today's all-national concerns). Mr. Sinanyan further furnished some information on non-official discussions, media coverage etc.
It was noted that the second conference had enjoyed broader geographical coverage than the first one and embraced wider range of topics, which was positively assessed by all participants.
Mr. Sinanyan further mentioned that conference participants's comments and suggestions had already been processed by the secretariat and would be taken notice of at the next fora to enhance conference efficiency, include new areas of topical interest and set additional objectives.
The Prime Minister stressed the necessity of providing the participants with regular follow-up information to keep them posted on the progress made in the implementation of conference resolutions. He also emphasized that a special focus should be placed upon the target of mobilizing the efforts of young Armenians from all over the world and ensure that they were aimed at achieving the conference goals.
Mr. A. Margaryan suggested to consider in drafting future conference programs the possibility of involving non-Armenian speaking young people from the Diaspora.
During the meeting, Mr. Ruben Markosyan, head of foreign relations department of the Fund, presented the Board with the details of an international fact-finding mission referred to as "Youth Activities in Conflict Zones. Human Rights, Democracy and Participation," which was scheduled for the second decade of November 2004. Over 10-15 experts from Armenia and abroad representing various organizations will take part in this mission aimed at promoting youth activities and relevant policies in Nagorno Karabakh, involving young people in peace-making and rehabilitation efforts in conflict zones or regions with recent record of military operations, detecting conflict- or warfare-caused impediments to a more pro-active youth policy and identifying efficacious means for their removal, de-isolating young people residing in Nagorno Karabakh and other conflict zones and re-integrating them into the on-going processes of international cooperation, development and promoting human rights, democracy and civil society participation mechanisms, initiating a cross-culture dialog among those young people having suffered from military escalations and finding ways for ensuring their peaceful co-existence.
As an integral part of Pan-Armenian events in general, the Board of Trustees of All-Armenian International Youth Center Fund has also referred to issues in relevance to those all-Armenian youth events scheduled for 2005. The Executive Director of the Fund was assigned the task of submitting a draft program for such events before November 15.
In closing, Prime Minister A. Margaryan emphasized the necessity of giving more openness and transparency to the discussions relating to program funding and expenditure in order to save unnecessary rumors and speculations in future.
