From November 30 to December 2, 2022, over 60 youth representatives from national youth umbrella associations met in Berlin to participate in the conference “Democracy and human rights in times of crisis – the contribution of young people”.

The conference was attended by representatives from more than 25 countries. The conference was held as part of “Democracy Here. Democracy Now.” campaign implemented by the Youth Department of the Council of Europe. The conference was initiated and led by the German delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in cooperation with the German Federal Youth Association (DBJR).

The participants of this international youth conference pointed out that threats to democracy are particularly serious today due to the accumulation of factors and crises. The final result of the conference was the final declaration, which contains a set of recommendations that will be addressed to decision makers, in which the young participants reminded that all processes of revitalization of democracy must begin with respect and thorough implementation and regular monitoring of the existing standards of the Council of Europe and lead to until their further development.

KOMS had the opportunity to provide its contribution on the topic of youth health and use this conference to promote existing recommendations from our research (Youth health: Position and needs of youth in the RS) at the international level. We advocated for the strengthening of efforts towards the primary prevention of mental health disorders in young people, and in addition to the increased availability, and especially the acceptability, of services in the field of mental health care for young people. We also insisted on standardizing the working conditions of volunteers in crisis situations, in order to ensure their safety. Finally, we focused on the need to create and implement an education program with the aim of developing the ability to critically assess the quality and sources of information from the Internet.

Also, as one of the results of the conference, a video clip was recorded: