Final Symposium
22-27 January 2002
Centro Eurolatinoamericano de la Juventud (CEULAJ)
Mollina (Malaga) - SPAIN
“A reflection on the concept of voluntary service and its perspective for the future”
Background information about the IYV 2001 Joint Campaign and symposium:
The idea for a Joint Campaign at the occasion of the International Year of Volunteers 2001 (IYV 2001) was born at a follow-up meeting of a joint seminar between the six following international voluntary service organisations/networks: the Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organisations (Alliance), the Association of Voluntary Service Organisations (AVSO), International Cultural Youth Exchange (ICYE), Service Civil International (SCI), the Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS) and Youth Action for Peace (YAP) in January 2000 at the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg.
These organisations seized this historical opportunity for an analysis of their activities after 80 years of existence of the voluntary service movement. Therefore, the IYV Joint Campaign was set up and launched at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris on December, 5th 2000.
The Joint Campaign seeks to raise the awareness of the challenges of voluntary service, improve the quality of such projects, facilitate new partnerships,fight the obstacles for accessibility of international voluntary service for all young people, and reach common positions of the actors involved.
Actions and debates were organised during the year 2001 around these topics (more details available on this website):
-accessibility of voluntary service,
-workcamps - a step towards peace?,
-supporting returned volunteers,
-a legal status for volunteers: facilitating their engagement and mobility (visas),
-inter-regional exchanges between North, South, East and West.
The symposium's objectives in particular were:
-to draw conclusions from the one-year campaign: some of the recommendations of the symposium shall be integrated into the final report on the IYV 2001 which will be delivered to the UN General Assembly in 2002,
-to strengthen the network of the organisations involved and other like-minded organisations,
-to strengthen the partnership with the international agencies supporting the campaign: EU, Coe, UNV and UNESCO.
Participants:
The 60 participants invited were activists in the voluntary service organisations/networks mentioned above. We hosted representatives from Africa, Asia, America, Mediterranean, European and Eastern European countries. Experts from the funding and supporting International Institutions (UNESCO, United Nations Volunteers and the European Commission) also attended the meeting and took actively part in the debates. Participants were all hosted by the Centro Eurolatinoamericano de la Junventud (CEUJLAJ) de Mollina, Andalucia.
For more information:
Contact the coordinating organisation:
Arnaud Walbecq
IYV Project Officer
Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS)
UNESCO House
1 rue Miollis
F-75732 Paris Cedex 15
France
Tel : (00 33 ) 1 45.68.49.36
ccivs@unesco.org
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