Federation of Young European Greens

The Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG) and Zelena Omladina (ZOS) - FYEG´s Serbian Member organisation - were strongly supporting the planned Pride Parade that was due to take place on Saturday, the 6^th of October, in Belgrade, Serbia. LGTBQ organisations and activists from Serbia have worked hard to organise this event, which was banned due to so-called security problems. Again homophobes has succeded in preventing a non-violent protest from happening. In order to show our solidarity, FYEG and ZOS, together with the Green European Foundation and the Heinrich-Böll Foundation, have organised a seminar with more than 50 activists from all over Europe on the topic of Queer Theory in Belgrade, intended to coincide with the Parade.

For FYEG and ZOS, it is completely unacceptable that the Pride Parade has been banned. 

FYEG and GEF with support of HBF office Belgrade are holding a seminar with the title "Queering Green Theory/Greening Queer Theory" in Belgrade, Serbia from the 3rd to the 8th of October 2012. This seminar will be the second part of a series of three seminars on the Balkans in 2012 concerning the issue of LGBTQ with the Green European Foundation. A host organization of the seminar is Serbian Green Youth (Zelena omladina Srbije).

During this second seminar we will discuss the political dimension of LGTBQ rights in the Balkand focussing on questions concerning anti-discrimination, family law and homo- and transphobia. We want to assess questions such as: What is the situation of the LGTBQ community in the Balkans? How is it all over Europe? What things still need to be improved (rights to marriage and adoption)? How can we tackle problems such as homo- and transphobia and violence against LGTBQ?

The main aims of the seminar are to:

• education on LGBTQ rights
• rising awareness about LGBTQ human rights
• preparing specific actions for the third seminar
• cooperating with the LGBTQ scene in Serbia and the Balkans.

"Sustainable Peace for a Sustainable Future."
Statement from the Federation of  Young African Greens, Federation of  Young European Greens and the Global Young Greens

Today, the 21st of September, we celebrate the International Day of Peace. This day was created by the UN in 1981, when the organisation devoted itself to worldwide peace and encouraged all of mankind to work in cooperation for peace.

International cooperation for peace has experienced serious setbacks in the last couple of years. We saw the upheavals in the Arab countries and heard the shouts for democratic rights, but we also observed how movements for freedom were repressed unjustly by the use of violence in other regions. We have to do all we can to promote peace in the world we live in, so that people enjoy the protection of their rights. The Greens will not give up their attempts to build peace by developing a culture of peace and support local and global policies that do not put peace at risk.

The Global Young Greens, Federation of Young European Greens and the Federation of Young African Greens jointly state that; Peace is not only the absence of war, peace is a concept that affects all parts of society. It is something that we cannot discuss only in times of conflict but something we need to build every day. By acting early through dialogue and mediation we can stop violent conflicts before they erupt. Using military violence must always be the very last resort of political action. The processes that lead to such action must be transparent and democratic. All parties involved must be fully accountable for their actions.

We all have a joint responsibility to build a more peaceful world. This needs to be done together in dialogue across nation state borders and cultural differences. Parties should take extreme care when they are intervening in other parts of the world, always having a legal and moral basis to do so and the approval of the UN.

Sustainable peace cannot be achieved merely through paper commitments by governments and policy makers to end violence and conflict. Sustainable peace can only be achieved by building a fairer world order and by reducing conflict sources such as poverty, injustice and discrimination. We hope that more and more people realise that without their commitment, we will not come closer to the realisation of peace. In the end, everybody wishes to live in peace which is why we all need to work together to create the world we want to live in.

International Day of Democracy: Democracy Education

Statement from the Federation of  Young African Greens, Federation of  Young European Greens and the Global Young Greens

On this occasion of the International Day of Democracy, the Federation of Young African Greens, the Federation of Young European Greens and the Global Young Greens reaffirm the words of Abraham Lincoln that democracy is the embodiment of a government “of the people by the people and for the people”. We stress that in any representation of democracy as a political principle, the people, their needs and rights must at all times be held sacred. Parliamentary and government authority must always emanate from the people. The people must therefore be fully made aware of their rights and responsibilities.

Democracy is a universal value that is embedded in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights through the succinct provision that the will of the people shall be the basis of government authority. However this is a principle that has been abused and disregarded by many governments mainly because most people do not understand that they are the sovereign authority upon whose will all government action must be based.

We reiterate the vision and commitment embedded in the Global Greens Charter that young people should be given a voice by being actively supported through education and encouraged to participate in every aspect of political action.Equal political participation has been one of the major demands of the youth. Young people continually refuse to be ignored in decision making processes. Without a fair share of the power in a society young people can never be emancipated. The past has shown that abolishing legal restrictions is not the only action needed, but that we also need to fight structural discrimination in order to combat these inequalities and to empower young people in politics through civic education.

About one hundred of French Young Greens were in Poitiers (France) for their summer camp, set up on the model of a BarCamp. All the participatory workshops, the content of which was provided by activists, contributed to think both about internal functioning and external influence. If Les Jeunes Ecologistes discussed a lot, they also acted by organizing three happenings.

Taking advantage of the Summer Camp of the French Greens (EELV), they challenged greenwashing.  Nine undressed activists came in front of camera to be painted in  green, their sooty backs revealing their real nature. They also made fun  of the French conservatives by making a “conservatism party” and criticized the neoliberal society by launching “the Olympy Cash” where countries and companies could compete during the “race to benefit” or  “the boost of the economy” games. As always, Les Jeunes Ecologistes demonstrated that politics could be impertinent and humoristic.