SIDU in Istanbul
00:00, October 7, 2010 | Press Release
SIDU is an international seminar on intercultural dialogue that takes place once a year, each time in a different country, trying to combine the common issues using the local (and usually very actual) problems.
Participants, all young activists with experience, are active in the projects which aim to transform their societies towards more democracy and better respect for human rights. The principal goal is to provide an occasion for each participant to express themselves, but also to witness the similar experiences from various cultural backgrounds, creating a multicultural context. It is equally an occasion to reinforce the international network of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly and to support the common projects between different participants in this seminar and reinforce the cooperation between their organizations. This includes mainly activities related to South-East Europe, Black Sea region as well as the Caucasus region.
The main subjects of this year’s meeting were: intercultural dialogue, democracy and the position of minorities in societies, migrants’ rights, and defense of the social rights, economic and cultural rights and anti-discrimination. The seminar was highlighted by the presentations of experts, debates, movie projections with the approach of informal education, exchange and sharing.
The first official session of SIDU in Istanbul, where the representatives of HCA Vanadzor also took part, started by the participants sharing the main problems of democratization in their countrıes, whıch turned out to be commonalities to a big extent. Thıs led the discussion to a deeper and more theoretıcal aspect whıch sent the participants to the founding principles of democracy.
During the seminar the participants worked on network mapping trying to get links between people and organizations. After a long and funny discussions the work was done and probably the participants found answers to the questions why, for whom and how we should do network mapping. “Kurdish question” in Turkey was another point of discussion. A strong accent was made on the responsibility of the government and the civil society towards the Kurdish population in 3 points: pre-denial, denial and post-denial. The participants were presented with the Roma issue and migration policies in Europe and outside Europe: violation of human rights and how EU is asking to third country to take a part in its policy. Everyone talked about their own experience with the famous “visa Schengen” and how difficult and not logical it can be.
Almost every day the participants took part in workshops and had a chance to watch movies and then discuss them. A very important workshop was related to HCA as a network and its future: how the new generation can be involved in the network? The vision of HCA? How the 20th birthday is the occasion to work on it? Everyone has to take responsibilities and be engage in the network – this was a suggestion for solution. The SIDU, the young generation has to be reactive. HCA co-chair Bernard Dreano’s speech about HCA’s history was really inspiring and it seems that the new generation is ready!!!
SIDU this year had a special meaning apart from its regular specialty of bringing together young members of the network. On the occasion of hCa’s 20th anniversary, it brought together the founders of the network and the people who had an important role in the work of the network. This union of generations was not only a unique opportunity to celebrate, but also to reflect upon the past, present and the future of hCa.