This UNAOC-EF Summer School will bring together 100 youth from all over the world for a week of discussions on pressing global challenges within the context of cultural and religious diversity. Several skills-building workshops will be offered with a view to strengthen participants’ ability on topics such as peace-building, human rights, advocacy, social entrepreneurship, etc.

This year marks the fourth UNAOC Summer School. Youth (between 18 and 35) who are interested in attending this year’s summer school can apply at www.UNAOCEFSummerSchool.org on or before 31 May 2013.

Selected participants will be provided with flight, accommodation, meals and full event access.

For more information about the UNAOC-EF Summer School, please contact info@unaocefsummerschool.org.

We encourage you to share this message with your networks of young people who might be interested by the UNAOC-EF Summer School.

Note: The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and Education First (EF) expect to officially launch UNAOC-EF Summer School in Spring 2013. However, UNAOC and EF reserve the right to not select any applicants, or to cancel the Summer School for any reason. UNAOC and EF accept no liability for cancelling the Summer School or for anyone’s failure to receive actual notification of cancellation.

Recognizing youth as powerful agents of social change in a world often characterized by intolerance, and cultural and religious divisions, PLURAL+ invites youth to address key challenges related to migrant integration, inclusiveness, identity, diversity, human rights and social cohesiveness, both at local and global levels. Young people up to 25 years old are invited to submit short videos of five minutes maximum in length.

A prestigious international jury will select three winners in each age categories (9-12, 13-17, and 18-25). All the winners will be invited to New York, all travel expenses paid, to present their work at the PLURAL+ 2013 Awards Ceremony at the Paley Center for Media in December 2013. Furthermore, winners will be distinguished by PLURAL+ partner awards.

PLURAL+ 2013 call for entries will close on 30 June 2013.

Read more about how to submit your videos here.

We have the honour to present the outcome of the Youth Event, an integral part of this global forum, were we worked on the three main topics of the Forum.

After a whole day of intense discussions and workshops, we came up with the following recommendations:

Concerning religion and law,
· We recommend the inclusion of ethical, religious and spiritual teachings in both formal and non-formal education, and the reinforcement of the rights of freedom of conscience, thought, religion, religious practice, faith, spirituality and its protection on state and public levels.

In terms of religion and education,
· We request Member States to invest in both formal and non-formal education, including the training of teachers regarding diversity and tolerance and strongly encourage strengthening the relationship between youth and decision makers at all levels.

· Recognizing the importance of social media, having transformed media from monologue to dialogue, we recommend stakeholders to provide workshops to train young leaders on how to use social media wisely.

· Since free access to information is a key element for high quality media work and democracy, encouraging a dialogue between governments and civil society through decentralized inclusive decision making and information systems, sharing best practices and expertise.

To foster Diversity in Media, we recommend Stakeholders to help cultivate a plural society through the promotion and support of culturally diverse arts and encourage the creation of training programs for minorities in journalism, arts and media.

To shape a New Narrative on Migration, we request the formation of a task force including all stakeholders — especially migrants — to develop practical solutions through a multi-perspective approach to depoliticize the narrative of migration.

We also encourage Member States to ease the process of acquiring citizenship.

To share best practices in Integration, we encourage states to create a polylogue between various stake holders with an aim to enhance political and active participation of minorities in society to ensure and create long term social inclusion and integration. This can be achieved by including migrant stories in the political discourse of host nations, by sharing best practice outreach, affirmative programs and actions

To cross language divides and create a sense of community, we recommend providing children with free education both in their mother tongue and the lingua franca spoken in the respective region/country, the creation of an international open-source platform where migrants can share their experiences, needs and best practices to achieve mutual benefit and guaranteeing equal and free access to quality language education for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, regardless of their legal status.

We invite you to take our recommendations into account in your work and actions.

Thank you for listening carefully and helping to spread the voice of young people!

More than 1,000 political leaders and civil society representatives will assemble in Vienna to discuss the topic of “Responsible Leadership in Diversity and Dialogue”. On this occasion, a photo exhibition at the conference venue will visually display different perspectives on the topics of the conference.

We invite you to submit your entry in one of the following three categories:
• Perspectives on Religious Pluralism
• Freedom of the Media Matters
• A new Narrative on Diversity

The best photos will be displayed at the forum venue as well as on the homepage of the UNAOC Global Forum 2013. The best 5 photos will be printed on postcards and distributed among the participants of the Global Forum. The best 3 photos will be awarded with a LOMO CAMERA. The best photo will be awarded with 200 €. The Prizes have been generously donated by the Federation of Austrian Industries.

CONDITIONS:
- You are under the age of 35.
- Photographs must be in digital format and submitted as electronic attachments via e-mail at youtheventvienna@iz.or.at.
- Only one photo can be submitted per person.
- All submissions must include the photographer’s name, date of birth and email address; as well as a short explanation of the photograph (no more than 10 sentences).
- Submitted photo files must be minimum 1MB, maximum 5MB; 2000x2000pixels (with minimum 150 DPI).
- The selected finalists will be notified by e-mail. Entries not selected will not be notified!
- Deadline for submissions is February 17, 2013.

Copyright of the image remains the property of the photographer. Entries must be submitted by the one who took the photo. Photos taken by someone else will not be considered. Your submission of the photo is your guarantee that you are the original photographer and copyright holder of the given photo.

The Youth Solidarity Fund (YSF) provides seed funding to outstanding youth-led initiatives that promote long-term constructive relationships between people from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. The Fund links small scale and local work to larger movements for social and global change. The YSF supports the development of young peoples’ organizations and other means for their work to have an even broader and deeper impact and to be expanded. It was established to answer the calls for action made around the world by youth organizations since the creation of the UNAOC.

The pilot phase of the YSF was launched during the first UNAOC Forum in January 2008 and a total of six youth-led organizations were provided grants. In 2009-2010, a total of 18 projects were selected. Youth play a critical role in the selection of the winning YSF projects.

On a regular basis, the UNAOC offers technical support and trainings to the YSF projects and, in addition, provides assistance with media relations, lobbying, financial management, networking, evaluation, monitoring and sustainability. In addition, the UNAOC organizes various events to which the selected organizations are invited and where they have an opportunity to promote both the YSF and their projects. These included the UNAOC Forums in Istanbul, Rio and Doha, the UNAOC 2010, 2011 and 2012 Youth Summer Schools, etc.

For information on all outstanding projects selected during the first and the second editions of the YSF, please click here. For more information on the general project outcomes, please click here.

The training under this initiative will take place in Torino, Italy, over 5 days, from 11 to 15 of February 2013 and will be hosted at the Headquarters of the Fondazione CRT. A total of 20 young aspiring social entrepreneurs, all in their 20s and early 30s and from the Euro-Med region, were selected to receive this training.

The main objective of this training is to provide the young entrepreneurs with the tools to start or strengthen their social enterprise, aware of the economic, social and cultural challenges and opportunities within the Euro-Mediterranean region.

Please see this document for more information regarding the type of trainers we are looking for.

We would be grateful if you could forward this call for application to your network of partners and members.

The application deadline is January 4, 2013.

In addition to the training, these 20 young adults will network and receive feedback from peers, experienced social entrepreneurs and a professional fund-raiser. The training will take place in Torino, Italy, 11 to 15 February 2013.

We are looking for young adults from the Euro-Med region between the ages of 18 and 35 who are new social entrepreneurs in the sector of intercultural and interfaith dialogue, or who have a great idea that could become a social enterprise in this sector.

There is no participation fee, and all participants will be provided with round-trip international tickets to Torino as well as accommodations, meals and visa support.

More information about the Young Euro-Med Entrepreneurs in Interculturality is available here.

Please see page 5 of the application guidelines for the list of 26 countries from the Euro-Med region targeted for the first edition of this initiative.

All questions about this initiative should be sent to YEMEI@unaoc.org.

Hope to see you in Torino!

The 5th Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations will take place in Vienna, Austria, from February 26 to 28, 2013.

This forum will bring together a vast array of participants including youth, political and corporate leaders, civil society activists, representatives of faith communities, journalists, etc. to work together and agree on joint actions to improve relations across cultures and religions and build a lasting peace.

The Forum will explore how responsible leadership can make a difference in the following three major issues:
1) Addressing the universal right to religious freedom and promoting a new religious pluralism through education
2) Media pluralism and diversity of media content and their contribution to fostering public debate, democracy and awareness of diverse opinions;
3) Shaping a new narrative for migration, integration and mobility in the global economy.

A total of 150 youth (18 to 35 years old) from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds and with outstanding track records in intercultural dialogue and youth work were selected as participants of the Youth Event (February 26) and the 5th UNAOC Forum (February 27 and 28) in Vienna. These 150 participants were selected from a pool of close to 4,000 applications from 140 countries.

The Youth Event will be output-oriented and will focus on collective reflection (i.e. preparing youth recommendations to world leaders) rather than on presentations of individual projects implemented by youth organizations at the event. In addition, it will help youth establish contacts, actively exchange and explore how they can collaborate together, before and after the Forum. Youth will be invited to multiply the results of the Youth Event and the Forum after they return home.

Aiming to launch well in advance the discussions among the youth, during the period of end of December 2012 – February 2013, the organizers will invite youth to participate in online consultations on the Forum’s themes and start brainstorming on the elements of the Youth Recommendations to be prepared on February 26.

The draft program of the Youth Event and the 5th UNAOC Forum will be available on-line in January 2013.

Dear youth partners,

We have the pleasure to inform you that the 5th Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations will take place in Vienna, Austria, from February 26 to 28, 2013.

This forum will bring together a vast array of participants including youth, political and corporate leaders, civil society activists, representatives of faith communities, journalists, etc. to work together and agree on joint actions to improve relations across cultures and religions and build a lasting peace.

The Forum will explore how responsible leadership can make a difference in the following three major issues:
1) Addressing the universal right to religious freedom and promoting a new religious pluralism through education
2) Media pluralism and diversity of media content and their contribution to fostering public debate, democracy and awareness of diverse opinions;
3) Shaping a new narrative for migration, integration and mobility in the global economy.

Up to 150 youth (between 18 and 35 years old) from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds with outstanding track records in intercultural dialogue and youth work will be selected as participants of the Youth Event (February 26) and the 5th UNAOC Forum (February 27 and 28) in Vienna.

The Youth Event will be output-oriented and will focus on collective reflection rather than on presentations of individual projects implemented by youth organizations at the event. In addition, it will help youth establish contacts, actively exchange and explore how they can collaborate together, before and after the Forum. Youth will be invited to multiply the results of the Youth Event and the Forum after they return home.

Aiming to launch well in advance the discussions among the youth, during the period of December 2012 – February 2013, the organizers will invite all selected youth to participate in online consultations on the Forum’s themes and start brainstorming on the elements of the Youth Recommendations to be prepared on February 26.

The draft program of the Youth Event and the 5th UNAOC Forum will be available on-line in November.

The Austrian government is offering some financial support to up to 150 youth representatives wishing to attend the UNAOC Forum in Vienna. Please see the Application_Guidelines for more details and eligibility criteria. If you meet the eligibility criteria, please complete the Application_Form.

The application deadline is 11:59 PM, New York time, Thursday November 1, 2012. Any application received after this time will not be considered. Send your application to viennayouth@unaoc.org.
Should you have questions about the content of this message, please do not hesitate to contact us at viennayouth@unaoc.org.

Name of organization: ISAFIS (Indonesian Students Association for International Studies)

Geographic focus: All Regions

Mandate: Indonesian Students Association for International Studies or ISAFIS is a youth led organization in Indonesia. The mission of ISAFIS itself is to promote mutual understanding among nations particularly between Indonesia and other countries, and developing International studies among students and youth in Indonesia. The objective is to enhance interest and knowledge of Indonesian students and youth in international studies. ISAFIS believes that mutual understanding is one of the corner stone to create a better and more peaceful world. ISAFIS has received recognition for its contribution in promoting mutual understanding among nations from Javier Perez De Acquellar, Secretary General for United Nations, who endowed ISAFIS with “Peace Messenger Award” in 1987.

Website: www.isafis.org

Address: Jl. Banyumas No. 2, Menteng, Jakarta Pusat 10310, Jakarta, Indonesia

Phone: +6282114914750

Email: isafis.board@gmail.com

Contact person: Lukman Oesman