Youth Parliament initiative

Fostering awareness among the young population through the Youth Parliament initiative.

To complement the creation of the Sava Water Council and to raise awareness among the younger populations the ISRBC initiated a Youth Parliament initiative.

The Youth Parliament gathers up to 60 young people, between 15-18 years of age, each year from secondary schools in the Sava River Basin countries.

Specific objectives

The specific objectives of the Youth Parliament are:

to familiarize the youth with the integrated planning, regulation, use and protection of water resources at basin level, and to allow discussion on current and future priorities regarding the use and protection of water resources and understand their vision of possible solutions.

The initial activities have been strongly welcomed and supported by the countries’ representatives – both by ISRBC and by ministers at the 4th Meeting of the Parties to the FASRB (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 31, 2013).

Until now, four meetings of the Youth Parliament have been organized. The main outcomes include:

  • Declaration on Sustainable Development of the Sava River Basin (adopted on the first meeting, held in Lonjsko Polje Nature Park, Croatia, on June 1-2, 2012) (http://www.savacommission.org/event_detail/0/0/265/20)
  • Statute of the Youth Parliament (adopted on the second meeting, held in Special Nature Reserve Zasavica, Serbia, on May 24-25, 2013) http://www.savacommission.org/event_detail/0/0/292/14
  • Cartoon “Save the River” (http://www.savacommission.org/multimedia_video) as a results of the scenarios presented by the participants on the 3rd Youth Parliament held in Ljubljana (SI) on September 19, 2014 (http://www.savacommission.org/event_detail/10/29/320/1)
  • Exhibition of selected photos on a 4th Youth Parliament held in Bihać (BA) on May 29-30, 2015.