World Youth Movement for Democracy

Deadline: 18/10/2010

The World Youth Movement for Democracy, a youth network of the World Movement for Democracy, is pleased to announce the launch of its Global Essay Contest.

Democracy has been practiced in different ways and in different contexts. We believe there are core universal democratic values and aspirations that we all share, which transcend our differences, even though we live in different cultures, speak different languages, and eat different food.

The purpose of this essay contest is to highlight personal engagement in democracy by promoting critical thinking about the role of young people in democracy and to connect youth with broader democracy movements. The questions posed below for this essay contest aim to challenge youth to write about their perspectives on democracy and their understanding of democracy activism, particularly their own.

Essays are required to address one or more of the following questions:
1. In what ways have young people contributed to democratic participation in your community? Highlighting some of the strategies and tools they have used, what difference have their efforts made?
2. New media and social networking are increasingly becoming popular tools for community organizing.  In what ways have you and/or your organization been using new media for democracy promotion? How effective has it been and what challenges have you faced in using these tools?
3. What practices, do you think exemplify human  rights activist protection or violation in your country that is not openly recognized?  What do you think are the justifications for this and how can it be either replicated, in the case of a good example or stopped, in the case of a bad example?
4. What new  factors  can youth activists bring to longstanding human rights issues in your country? How have these issues been addressed in the past?

Essays’ Criteria
* essays can be submitted in Arabic, English, French, Russian, or Spanish;
* essay must be no more than 2,000 words;
* authors must be no younger than 18 and no older than 30 years old (before October 18).

For more specific information click here

Submission procedure
All interested participants need to submit their essay to following email address depending of the region they coming from:
– Asia: WYMD.ASIA@GMAIL.COM
– Central and Eastern Europe & Eurasia: WYMD.EURASIA@GMAIL.COM
– Middle East & North Africa: WYMD.MENA@GMAIL.COM
– Latin America & Caribbean: WYMD.LAC@GMAIL.COM
– Sub-Saharan Africa: WYMD.AFRICA@GMAIL.COM

The submission deadline is 18th October 2010.

Fifteen semi-finalists (3 in each region) will be announced on Human Rights Day, December 10, and will have their essays published on the WYMD Web site. Two global winners will be invited to participate in the upcoming Community of Democracies Ministerial Meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, in July 2011.

More detailed info

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