On the Founding General Assembly of the Islamic Conference Youth Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation

(1-3 DECEMBER, 2004, BAKU , THE REPUBLIC OF AZERBAIJAN)

I. Introduction

The idea of the establishment of the ISLAMIC CONFERENCE YOUTH FORUM FOR DIALOGUE AND COOPERATION was initiated by National Assembly of the Youth Organizations of the Republic of Azerbaijan (NAYORA), an umbrella youth NGO in special consultative status with the UN ECOSOC, and Eurasian International Development Association (EIDA) within the program named Islamic Conference Youth Initiative . The main goal of the Initiative was to establish a coordinating body – common Youth Platform for the region of the Organization of Islamic Conference, functioning on the permanent basis with the aim to discuss issues of common interest, advocate for issues of pressing concern for Muslim youth and explore the ways for future cooperation, coordination and networking.
Upon the invitation from organizers the Preparatory Committee for ISLAMIC CONFERENCE YOUTH FORUM FOR DIALOGUE AND COOPERATION (hereinafter – Forum) initially comprised of representatives of 8 OIC countries was established on 22 – 24 August, 2003, in Baku, the Republic of Azerbaijan, which has been followed by the organizational steps mentioned below and undertaken in one year period:
The membership of Preparatory Committee of the Forum have been increased. Since January 2004 Working Group has been comprised of 11 youth organization from respective OIC countries;
Mr. Nedim Kaya, the president of EIDA, organization authorized as interim Secretariat of Preparatory Committee has participated in the “International Conference of the Muslim Young Leaders” held on 14 – 16 September, 2003 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which has been organized by the Prime Minister’s Department, Malaysia and Vision Activators prior to the OIC Summit in Putrajaya. He has actively participated in the discussions of such themes as “Ummah Unity and Religious Tolerance”, “Globalization – The future of Ummah – Vision and mission”. Mr. N. Kaya has informed the participants of the Conference about the “Islamic Conference Youth Initiative”. He also disseminated the documents, which reflected the steps already undertaken within this Project. The idea of the Forum has received a warm welcoming from the participants and contributed to the increase of the number of leading youth organizations willing to participate in the establishment of the Forum;
On 29 – 30 December, 2003 Hj. Elchin Askerov, the representative of Preparatory Committee ( NAYORA ) visited the Headquarters of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and met with Mr. Mahmoud Ahmed Saleem, Director of Cultural and Social Department and other senior officials from the Secretariat. The mentioned officials have been informed on the steps undertaken so far within the Islamic Conference Youth Initiative. In these meetings the matters concerning the Forum’s future cooperation with the OIC after its establishment were discussed. As a result of the meeting the Preparatory Committee advocated to bring the issue for the discussion at the Conference of the OIC Foreign Ministers.
Mr. Elshad Iskandarov (NAYORA), Mr. Nedim Kaya, and Elchin Askerov participated in the Senior Officials Meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, held on 9 – 11 May in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) respectively as members and observers of the delegation of Azerbaijan to the meeting. The purpose of the visit was to support the inclusion of the draft resolution "On the Islamic Conference Youth Initiative" into the agenda of forthcoming 31st session of Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers to be held in Istanbul, and introduce the fundamentals of the Initiative to the interested delegations from the OIC Member States. Prior to the meeting the draft has been discussed and amended at the consultations held by the OIC Missions to the UN through the good offices of the OIC Observer Mission to the UN and Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan to the UN. The draft resolution was unanimously included into the agenda of the forthcoming 31st session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers.
Finally the resolution “On the Islamic Conference Youth Initiative” was adopted during the 31st session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers held in Istanbul on 14-16 June 2004. Mr.Elshad Iskandarov and Mr. Nedim Kaya representing the Prepcom participated in this conference and contributed into the deliberations held at the expert level.
At the parallel track the Preparatory Committee has identified through the official representatives of the OIC Member States leading youth organizations in member countries and communicated with them inviting them to participate as delegates at the Founding General Assembly of ISLAMIC CONFERENCE YOUTH FORUM FOR DIALOGUE AND COOPERATION.
In August 2004, the Preparatory Committee at its second meeting held in Baku has decided to hold a General Assembly of the ISLAMIC CONFERENCE YOUTH FORUM FOR DIALOGUE AND COOPERATION, on 1-3 December, 2004 in Baku. The meeting of the Prepcom has also set up the agenda of the General Assembly, approved the draft Statute of the Forum and other draft documents to be considered by the delegates;
Preparatory Committee during the length of its more than 1-year activity has approached several donor organizations and achieved to secure the necessary funding for holding the General Assembly.

II. Founding General Assembly of the ISLAMIC CONFERENCE YOUTH FORUM FOR DIALOGUE AND COOPERATION (daily account)

1 December 2004

The official opening ceremony of the General Assembly has started with the recitation from the Holy Koran. The welcome remarks from H.E. Dr. Ikmaleddin Ihsanoglu, the Secretary-General of the OIC, H.E.Abdullah Gul, the President of Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers, H.E.Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Ali, President of the Islamic Bank of Development were introduced to the delegates of the General Assembly. Afterwards prominent guests, including H.E. Hajji Allahshukur Pashazade, the Sheykh ul-Islam of Caucasus, H.E. Dr. Abulfaz Karayev, Minister of Youth, Sport and Tourism (Azerbaijan), H.E. Amb. Vagif Sadigov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, Mr. Rafig Aliyev, Head of State Committee on Religious Affairs (Azerbaijan), as well as distinguished foreign guests, including H.E. Dr. Adel Al-Falah, Deputy Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs of Kuwait, Dr. Fouad .Mimouni, the representative o the Islamic Development Bank, delivered their welcomes to the delegates of the GA and expressed the significance of the Initiative, its timeliness and great expectation it raises. Special importance was attached to the task to strengthen solidarity among Muslim youth worldwide, to increase their level of education and ability to meet the challenges of the contemporary era.
After the short break delegates continued their work by approving the mandates of the delegates. With regard to a special case of several organizations (Youth Secretariat Arab Democratic Nasserist Party in Egypt, Istiqlalian Youth in Morocco, Association of Culture an Education of Mauritania ) failed to comply with sending their participation application before the deadline established by the Secretariat it was decided to give them a temporary status of the delegates on the understanding that these delegation will provide appropriate documentation no later than 10 days after the conclusion of the GA.
Then Mr. N.Kaya delivered a detailed power-point presentation about the history of the Initiative and steps undertaken by the Prepcom so far. The delegates participating in the discussion of the report of the interim secretariat approved the report and praised the organizers for the hard work done in order to advance the ICYI. The following delegations participated in the discussion of the presentation: Federation of European Muslim Youth and Student Organizations (FEMYSO), Bangladesh Youth Forum, General Union of Students of Great Jamahiriya, Centre for Future Researches of Iran, Arab Youth Union, Jordan Youth Exchange, African Youth Network for Sustainable Development, Asia Muslims Committee, Afghanistan Youth Center, Congress of Youth Kazakhstan and Revolutionary Youth Union of Syria. In their interventions delegates expressed the necessity to elaborate a common vision on Muslim youth in XXI century, to eliminate the negative image of Islam propagated in the world as well as to engage in democracy building and strengthening the civil society, while cooperating to this end as equal partners with youth organizations in Europe and worldwide.
During the afternoon session the delegates started reviewing the draft Statute of the Forum, presented by Mr. E.Iskandarov of the Prepcom. Thought delegates agreed on the whole concept of the document, certain delegates expressed their whish to create a special commission to discuss some provisions of the Statue in details and then bring the reconciled views to the General Assembly. In order to provide open and wide discussion, the chairman agreed with this proposal. It was decided to create an open-end working group to discuss the Statute and to present it for delegates at the next day of the General Assembly.

2 December 2004

During the morning session of the second day the delegates were divided into the 4 working groups, which discussed and made recommendations on issues like: Strategic Paper of ICYFDC; intercultural dialogue; social problems facing young generation; education and training; (The outcomes of the working groups are included into the Strategic Action Plan enclosed)
During the afternoon session the delegates proceeded with the discussion of draft Statute of the Forum. Mr. E.Iskandarov, charing the meeting has informed about the outcomes of the working group, which worked on the Draft document overnight and decided to include different suggestion on some articles into the document. Among others it was decided to establish new positions of two vice–presidents who will simultaneously be the members of the Board. It was also decided that upon informal agreement during the election of President, Secretary General and 2 Vice-Presidents to give due consideration to fair representation of 4 regional groups agreed upon – Arab countries, African group, Asian group and European group. The delegates agreed upon the proposed amendments and adopted the Statute through the article by article consideration.
Following the adoption of the Statute the delegates proceeded with elections of the main bodies of the Forum. First the ballots representing the names of candidates for the main elected positions were approved. Then delegates authorized Mr. Adli Daana (Palestine) and Elvin Musayev (NAYORA) to perform the counting of the ballots. There following candidates were nominated to the relevant governing positions of the Forum:
President – Ali Sarikaya (IISBA, Turkey)
Secretary General – Elshad Iskandarov (NAYORA, Azerbaijan)
Vice - President - Anas Al Falah (AMC-Youth branch, Kuwait) Reda Mehigveni (African Youth Network for Sustainable Development, Algeria), Emad al Fugaha (Jordan Youth Exchange), Mr.Youssef Kshidan (General Union of Students of Great Jamahiriya)
Board Member - Nedim Kaya ( EIDA -international NGO), Yasser Salimi (Iran), Rana Bilal Ahmad (Pakistan), Mohammed Al -Tilbani (Saudi Arabia), El-Yasa Osman El-Gasim (Sudan), Khallad Swaid (Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations – international NGO).
According to the procedure adopted the candidates delivered their electoral statements and answered the questions from the floor.
A number of delegates proposed to have an open voting on the candidatures to positions of President and Secretary General since they were represented only by one nomination to fill each of these positions. The General Assembly agreed on this proposal. Following the open voting Mr. Ali Sarikaya, from Istanbul International Brotherhood & Solidarity Association (Turkey) has been elected a President of the Forum and Mr. Elshad Iskandarov from the National Assembly of the Youth Organizations of the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azerbaijan) has been elected a Secretary General of the Forum.
Further the delegates proceeded to the secret ballot voting to elect remaining candidates for the positions of vice-presidents and the members of the Board. According to the results announced by Mr. Adli Daana (Palestine) on behalf of the counting committee the following candidates were elected:
Vice President - Mr. Reda Mehigueni from African Youth Network for Sustainable Development (Algeria), representing the African group
Vice president - Mr. Anas Al-Falah from Asia Muslims Committee-Youth branch (Kuwait) have been elected representing the group of Arab countries.
Board members - Mr. Bilal Ahmad Rana from Pakistan National Youth Council (Pakistan), Mr. Nedim Kaya from Eurasian International Development Association (International), Mr. Yasser Salimi from Centre for Future Researches (Iran), Mohammed Al-Tilbani from the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (Saudi Arbia), Mr. El Yasa Osman El Gasim from National Federation of Sudanese Youth (Sudan) have been elected members of Board.
The General Assembly approved the results of the elections.
The second day concluded its work by the congratulation speeches of a number of delegates who expressed that open, transparent and unblemished elections showed that the newly established Forum is committed to the principles of democratic governance and working in a friendly manner of mutual respect and collegiality. In the end the delegates took a family picture.

3 December 2004

During the morning session the rappourters of the working groups began to present the results of the brain storming activities held during the previous day.
Dr. Fouad Mimouni representing the IDB, who was invited by the delegates to chair the “Working group D: On Education and Training” made a presentation on the results of discussions held in the working group on the problems of education and training and introduced concrete conclusions. The main objectives were defined as training for youth leaders, promotion of talents among Muslim youth, education of young women leaders as well as promotion of human rights among Muslim youth. The participants of this working group emphasized on the development of the technological knowledge among the youth of the OIC countries, using the knowledge of students from these countries, studying in non-Member countries, including those representing Muslim communities of the latter group of countries.
Mr. Y.Salimi, from the Centre for Future Researches (Iran) the rappourter for the “Working group B: On youth cultural values and dialogue among civilizations (intercultural dialogue)” presented the outcomes of the discussions on intercultural dialogue. The delegates participated in this working group decided that, it is necessary to undertake deliberate and well-designed actions to prevent the youth from radicalization and to educate OIC youth in the values of true Islam as well as proceed with educational work in non-member countries. Participants of this working group decided that due to diversity of cultural and social patterns within the OIC region itself, the Forum should pay special attention to promoting a dialog among youth of the OIC member countries, followed by the dialog with youth organizations of other regions. It was also agreed to run an annual youth summer camp in one of member countries for informal dialog and exchange of culture and traditions among youth of Member countries. It was also recommended to establish relations with the European youth NGOs, in particular European youth Forum to engage in mutual discussion on better implementation of intercultural dialogue.
Mr. Khalid Swaid from FEMYSO, reporting on the outcomes of the “Working group C: On social problems facing young generation” stated that discussions on social problems, Muslim young people face in our world was held in this group. Mr. Swaid grouped the problems identified into three categories:
Education
Health
Other social problems.
He gave a deep inside on the necessity to elaborate a Muslim identity in education, to disseminate the ideas of strong family ideas based on Islamic values among the Muslim youth that have been undergone the negative impacts representing the downsides of globalization. The participants of this working group also discussed the problems of woman rights in traditional Muslim societies as well as unemployment, “leak of brains” to the developed countries from developing ones, hardships experienced by Muslim minorities in non-member countries. On each of these issues a concrete activities were recommended to be included into the SAP.
Mr. Ajmal .Abidy from Afghanistan Youth Centre made a presentation on the results of the “Working Group A: Strategic Action Plan of the ICYFDC”. The discussion themes have been grouped around the issues of bi-annual strategy, priority fields, fundraising strategy, international status of the Forum and relation with the OIC. It was recommended that the Forum would approach the OIC in order to establish permanent cooperation relationships and through this links further the dialogue with Member governments on the critical issues of youth policy. With this view it was recommended the Forum to apply for receiving a status of specialized institution of the OIC .
During the debates delegates had also adopted to include several proposals on establishing the Forum’s coordinator on gender mainstreaming issues, on dialogue among civilization, on IT education and training into the framework of the SAP.
Delegates have adopted all the proposed recommendations and authorized the Secretary General to produce biannual Strategic Action Plan based on these recommendations and submit it for the approval to the Board.
After the break Mr. E.Iskandarov in his capacity of the Secretary General-elect chaired the next session of the General Assembly, which concentrated on adoption of decisions and position statements of the Forum. During this exchange of views the delegates have spoken out on issues related to the establishment of headquarters of the Forum. A number of delegates proposed to give a serious consideration to this issue so that to choose the best option, which would secure operational mobility of the Secretariat, recognize the Forum’s international status and would best fit the optimum from financial stand point. Following an exchange of opinions, Forum voted in favor of the following decision:
to authorize the Secretary General of approaching the Member Governments of the OIC with offer to submit their proposal on allocation of the HQ based on the criteria elaborated above;
to authorize Board to review the finding of the Secretariat and come up with the decision on the permanent HQ of the Form no later than 15 March 2005
to include the issue into the Agenda of the next GA for approval;
It also was decided that until the establishment of the Permanent HQ of the Forum the Secretariat will use the good services, kindly offered by NAYORA to proceed with communication and operation of its activities.
Following the discussion the Forum has also adopted the current logo of the organization, authorizing the Secretariat working together with the interested Members to make necessary improvements to its current view.
The chair has also announced that since the General Assembly decided on 2 December to utilize time and resources allocated for the “Working Group E: On position statements” for discussing the draft Statute, several individual delegates have worked out proposals on position statements. The delegates of the General Assembly decided to issue statements, expressing the organization’s views with regard to the issue of “War and youth”, on the “Situation in Palestine” and regarding the “Situation in Nagorno Karabakh region and other occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan” as well “On youth of Muslim minority communities” .
After conclusion of the substantive part of the Forums’ work delegates were addressed by Mr. Ralf-René Weingärtner, Director of Youth and Sport, Council of Europe (CE), who presented vision on the youth work of and activities held by his department. He stressed the necessity to resist the Islamophobia that is observed in some European countries. Mr. Weingärtner informed the participants that, the Youth and Sport Directorate of CE actively cooperates with the FEMYSO and other youth organizations representing Muslim minorities in Europe to realize the idea of intercivilizational dialogue. He extended a proposal to the newly established Forum to establish working cooperative relations with the YDCE and also engage in partnership relations with the EYF.
Mr. Intigam Babayev, the Deputy Minister of Youth, Sport and Tourism concluded the final working day of the General Assembly by congratulating the delegates with the achievement of establishing the Forum which he recognized as a historical event, and also with finalizing the great amount of work within a limited time period. He also invited the delegates to continue active cooperation through the Forum in achieving the objectives set up in the Strategic Action Plan.
After the conclusion of the official closing ceremony the delegates joined together in collective praying on Juma.

III. Supporting Organizations:

Preparatory Committee would like to express its thanks for the following organizations for supporting the organizational work undertaken during the preparation to and holding of the General Assembly:
Islamic Development Bank
Turkish Agency for Development and Cooperation
Ministry for Awgaf and Islamic Affairs, State of Kuwait
El-Rahma Charity Trust