HIV is a virus, not a crime! Criminalise Hate not HIV!

Street Action
>Galatasaray Square-Taksim Square<-Istanbul, 1 December 2010
HIV interests all of us!

Started on 1st December 1988, World AIDS Day is all about raising awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education and help stop the spread of HIV. The World AIDS Day theme for 2010 is 'Universal Access and Human Rights'. World AIDS Day is important for reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done.

On World AIDS Day the human rights activists, women rights activists, artists, lawyers, doctors, HIV+ people and their relatives gathered in Galatasaray Square/Istanbul at 11:00. After the opening speeches and the press release, the street action went on with shows and march along Istiklal Street till Republic Monument.

Creative Street Artists and Sambistanbul Percussion Group performed in Galatasaray Square and down on Istiklal Street. The action finished with a human red ribbon made by activists in Taksim Republic Monument.

The president of Positive Living Association, Nejat Unlu, underlined "the need for common action in order to raise awareness on HIV/AIDS" in his speech. He reminded once again that "we should look Positive to the reality of HIV and people living with HIV!".

UNFPA-Turkey coordinator, Gokhan Yildirimkaya, emphasized on the fact that HIV is no more a lethal disease, but the discrimination and stigmatisation against HIV+ people is the main problem.

According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 33.3 million people living with HIV, including 2.5 million children. During 2009 some 2.6 million people became newly infected with the virus and an estimated 1.8 million people died from AIDS. The vast majority of people with HIV and AIDS live in lower- and middle-income countries. But HIV today is a threat to men, women and children on all continents around the world.

World AIDS Day Istanbul street action and other activities around Turkey are organised by Positive Living Association in cooperation with UNAIDS, Gilead, Jannsen and MAC AIDS Fund.

Young Society Initiative members and supporters took part in the street action on World AIDS Day.

Young Society Initiative supports the cause of Positive Living Association.

Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness

Global Assembly
Istanbul-TUR, 28-30 September 2010Young Society Initiative takes part in the process of The Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness. The 2010 Global Assembly of Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness took place in Istanbul between 28 and 30 September 2010.

The Open Forum is a unique space for CSOs (Civil Society Organisations) worldwide to engage in a global and full participatory process towards defining and introducing a framework of mutually shared development effectiveness principles.

The Open Forum aims to provide a learning space, based on mutual trust, where CSOs can discuss issues and challenges relevant to their work and relationships as development actors.

The Global Assembly agreed upon Istanbul Principles for CSO Development Effectiveness. These principles are the result of the national consultation processes and the discussions in the Global Assembly. The principles are built on a consensus of CSOs.

8 Istanbul Principles show the commonly accepted principles to improve CSOs' development effectiveness and on minimum standards for enabling environment where CSOs can fully apply and strengthen their specific roles in development.

"Choiceless & Voiceless"

International Seminar
Berlin-DE, 5-12 July 2009

In June 2009, elections for the Parliament of the European Union were held. Everyone has been talking about voter turnout, and many projects were trying to encourage young people to use their right to vote. And yet, hardly anyone talks about the people who do not vote, except when to blame them.
They are mystified, ignored, thrust aside.
We want to look into the corners that other people ignore. Who are the non-voting young people? In most European countries, non-voters tend to be concentrated in specific demographic and socioeconomic groups, especially the young and the poor. What is missing, in their opinion, to make voting attractive – or actually even possible?
We want to risk an attempt to see behind the curtain of non-voting and non-voters.
The approximate structure will be scientific theory and reflection in the first two days, and more practice and field enquiries in the days after.
This means that we invite external experts for the beginning of the seminar to have free time for going out and talking to “real” non-voters after that. We’ll also do a lot of group work to be more flexible and be able to discuss more intensely.

AIMS & OBJECTIVES
The seminar aims to make participants explore the complexity of the phenomenon of non-voting and to start a dialogue between young non-voters and voters to finally develop approaches and strategies for better integrating young non-voting people into political processes.
To fulfil its aim, the seminar has the following objectives:
 to listen to and discuss with social scientists who will offer their expertise on the topic,
 to exchange arguments with politicians and journalists to get to know different perspectives and interests,
 to become active and run the streets of multicultural Berlin in order to add personal “stories” to the scientifically-based knowledge pool simply by asking young non-voters about their motivations and experiences,
 to illuminate the different and multi-facetted backgrounds which avoid young people from voting and to give them an authentic voice which can be publicly heard,
 to launch a dialogue between decision-makers and non-voters as well as between voters and nonvoters.

Young Society Initiative is a promoter of the project "Choiceless & Voiceless - Nonvoters in Shadow of the Society" seminar that will take place 5-12 July 2009 in Berlin.