TRUST IN THE UN, BUT LOCK YOUR CAR

When it comes to events on religious or ethnic tolerance, intercultural or inter-civilizational dialogue and youth forums, no one particularly thinks about the venue for such meetings. Baku and multinational and hospitable Azerbaijan in general are quite a good place for discussing the most pressing issues of the modern time.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the initiative to hold the First Global Forum on Youth Policies with the participation of 700 representatives from a hundred countries in the Azerbaijani capital on 28-30 October was supported by everyone - from those engaged in the youth policy of world governments to the UN secretary general.

Though Ban Ki-moon could not attend the event because of his busy schedule, the day before it started, he discussed preparations for the forum with Azerbaijani Minister of Youth and Sports Azad Rahimov and sent a message to the participants in the event. In a video message to them, the UN secretary general expressed his gratitude to the Azerbaijani government for hosting such a big event. "The holding of this forum ahead of the 20th anniversary of the world programme of activities in the interests of young people is particularly important. This is a very important question. The youth are the leaders of the future, and special attention should be paid to their development. The UN is ready to work with you," the secretary general said.

The great importance of problems of the youth is also noted in Baku. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev sent an appropriate message not only to the participants in the first day of the forum, but personally attended the event immediately after his return from France, where he was on a working visit. The head of state expressed his gratitude to the organizers of the forum for choosing Azerbaijan as the host country, which Baku regards as recognition of the efforts of the republic's government in the sports and youth policy, which is a priority for the country. And it is natural: in Azerbaijan the youth constitute the majority of the population, and conditions are being created for the development of their leadership abilities. Azerbaijan is the first country to support the global youth policy of the UN, and the forum in Baku is the first of its kind and one of the biggest events in the field of youth policy held in the 21st century. In addition, the country is taking the necessary measures for the intellectual and physical development of young people and for revealing their creative potential. Significant steps in this area are also taken in national legislation. Azerbaijan has a law on youth policies and has successfully adopted and implemented two state programmes called "Azerbaijani Youth". Relatively recently, the Youth Fund was established, which uses funding from state budget to help young people to express themselves in society, in other words, contributes to the discovery of talents in the younger generation.

President Ilham Aliyev expressed the hope that through close cooperation with international educational centres, Azerbaijan will be able to achieve more in education. The Azerbaijani government has funded educational programmes for the young generation in the leading universities of the world for many years, and thus, the country wants to expand ties with these universities. It is noteworthy that this year alone about 40m euros were allocated for educating the country's youth abroad.

Azerbaijan makes a significant contribution to the cause of involving young people in sports and in the development of sports on a global scale. Next year Baku will host the First European Olympic Games.

"The youth themselves play a direct role in the youth policy in Azerbaijan," the head of the public-political department of the Presidential Administration, Ali Hasanov, told reporters on the sidelines of the forum, noting that we are one of the top 30 countries to create conditions for young people.

All these statements about the measures taken by Azerbaijan on youth policy aroused a warm response and great satisfaction in UN representatives, who admit that in some countries there is no youth policy in principle, and it must be created "from scratch".

And here's what forum participants say about its importance. Here are a couple of quotes.

Marija Vasileva-Blazev, a programme specialist for youth at the regional office of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in Istanbul: "It is very important that this forum brings together governments, NGOs, youth and youth experts. The youth policy needs to be comprehensive and effective."

Paul Neri, an expert on HIV/AIDS prevention and adolescent development at the regional office of UNICEF in Geneva: "I think there will be a lot of discussion on the development of young people. It would be very interesting if we were able to combine politics and money. After all, politics is paper. There are many strategies, but their implementation is another question. Therefore, the most important thing is their funding."

Saodat Baygaziyeva, a representative of Community Initiatives and Research Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan): "For me, this forum is important because at this point the youth policy of my country does not consider the needs and interests of small communities - migrants, street youth and people with HIV. Our youth policy is mostly represented by dominant groups and nationalities. And young women are not represented. This forum is important to me, because there is an opportunity to discuss age discrimination we face. I hope the forum will give a direction and a document that would allow national youth policies to conform to international standards of human rights."

Note that the Global Forum on Youth Policies was held with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme, UNESCO and the office of the UN secretary general's special envoy for youth affairs. In general, the forum in Baku discussed 20 issues related to education, entrepreneurship, peace and security, gender equality, organization of leisure time and youth health. All these are extremely urgent problem of global importance. The regional sessions were headed by five UN economic commissions - for Africa, West Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. The forum prepared a document of recommendatory nature.

There is no doubt that the forum held at such a high level will serve to coordinate the purposes of youth policy, solve problems existing in this area and exchange experiences between various countries. Let's hope that the forum will help to solve the global issues it raised.

Ultimately, as noted by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, the key to the successful development of the advanced countries of the world and the driving force of all humanity are not natural resources but a high level of education and science.