IUSY Black Sea Area Committee gathered in Tbilisi, Georgia during 13-15 April. The topic of the meeting was decent work for young people!
Based on common past and present challenges almost all organisations and countries from the region face the same issues when it comes to youth, especially when it comes to youth unemployment, quality education and decent work rights. Lack of access to quality education, almost inexistent social protections and failures of welfare system represents the main challenges that the youth of the region faces.
But at the same time young people are not a homogeneous group. Their employment prospects vary according to sex, age, educational level, ethnicity, health status and disability, etc. In many countries, female youth un(der)employment rates are almost invariably higher than those for their male counterpart.
IUSY Black Sea Area Cooperation considers that following measures need to be taken to improve the situation of the youth in the region:
- To facilitate young people’s transition from educational institutions to formal economy and labour market;
- To provide quality and accessible education;
- To take into the consideration the needs of the youth in fragile situations;
- To regulate self-employment and shared economy in order to provide social protections for youth that are mostly self-employed in such kind of spheres;
- To create more sustainable and green jobs for youth.
IUSY Black Sea Area cooperation countries are standing in solidarity with each other when it comes up to the current political situations in the consecutive countries as we are remaining committed to the common values of human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality and rule of law;
Reiterating aspirations of all participants at the Black Sea Area Cooperation, member organisations stand for/in/with:
Georgia:
The right to work is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognised in international human rights law though its inclusion in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, where the right to work emphasises economic, social and cultural developments. We are in solidarity with Georgian workers and support their struggle for decent working rights!
During their stay in Georgia, the IUSY Presidium delegation, has visited the region around the occupation territories (Shida Kartli). Members of the organisation together with state officials and GDYouth observed the brutal violations of international Human Rights, i.e. the right to work, the freedom of movement, etc.
While speaking to locals, the delegation received alarming information about kidnapping and illegal detentions of ethnic Georgians.
IUSY BSAC together with GDYouth holds the view that these breaches of international and national law should be addressed by international community.
Ukraine:
Unfortunately, Ukraine has also gone through many sufferings. It has been in a struggle for decades, encountering ups and downs, victories and falls. It’s been fighting for the right to exist and to have a bright future.
Discrimination and social inequality can be observed in education, where the so-called “modernisation” is taking place based on a similar scenario. We stand in solidarity with Ukrainian people and especially youth and children in their struggle for a more equal educational system.
Bulgaria:
We stand in solidarity with Bulgarian young socialists and social-democrats in their struggle against the right-wing government, who took the freedom of speech away from the people and let Bulgaria be the most corrupted and the poorest country in the European Union;
Armenia:
IUSY BSAC member organisations stand in support of AYF Armenia in their mission to establish social justice in Armenia.