Study Visit "Another Peace"

Over the Europe there have been numerous efforts towards the prevention of conflict, which undoubtedly destroys the existing peace. Over the past 45 years, especially on political level important work has been done aimed at the promotion of peace. During these years it became obvious that the escalation of global conflict is rooted in diversity, which may be looked at in terms of economics, culture, politics, ethnicity, nationality, religion and gender among others. It is because of this diversity that there is a tendency for members of one group not to tolerate the views and actions of others. This leads to a fight for dominance, the result of which is conflict and the breakdown of peace. In the current world of conflicts and global migrations, young people are particularly vulnerable to instability and aggression. Within the global context of an increased international acknowledgment of the importance of conflict prevention and peace building the EC has significantly increased its focus on conflict prevention and peace building. The EU considerably strengthened its policy framework in the field of conflict prevention and peace building and developed a wide range of financial and non -financial instruments to intervene in conflict affected countries, ranging from “classic” long -term geographical assistance, to specific short -term instruments and a wide range of non-financial instruments such as political dialogue, high -level mediation, deployment of EU observers and civic education for young people. Peace-building is also often associated with society building, which is usually a case for post USSR countries and societies in transition. Society-building has become a necessity in many post-Soviet states in the early 1990s, after the collapse of USSR. A bottom-up peace-building approach, also known as “indigenous empowerment”, is a comprehensive tool that aims to empower local population at the bottom and mid-levels of society by allowing them to consolidate and develop necessary resources for the implementation of a peace process. AIM AND OBJECTIVES The project will have 2 activities: Training Course in Luxembourg (more infos at http://trainings.salto-youth.net/7265) and this Study Visit. The Study Visit has the following objectives:: 1 - To discover the youth work and youth NGOs’ reality in the country linked to peace building/education; 2 - To get to know youth policy developed by the Armenian Government related to peace building/education; 3 - To understand and see the influence of armed conflict and closed borders on the daily life of young people and how that affects their behavior/mentality; 4 - To discover the role of the NGOs and young people on the process of peace building/education; 5 - To create a space for dialogue among youth/youth workers from Europe and its neighbor Countries for fostering transnational cooperation/trans-regional cooperation in peace building/education and promote peace education/building and non-violent conflict resolution among youth in the country and in the region; 6 - To highlight the role of new youth programme (Erasmus +) in the process of peace building and inter-cultural learning; 7 - To explore European values such as human rights, active citizenship, participation and good practices as a common base for future cooperation within the Caucasus and EU NGOs.