In efforts to raise awareness among the public of the regressive draft Law on Volunteers, ECNL participated in a media conference, which was hosted by the Novi Sad Humanitarian Center in Belgrade on May 27. In addition to representatives of the host organization and ECNL, the State Secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sport, as well as representatives of Civic Initiatives and ISC participated in the event.
ECNL’s role at the conference was to brief media participants about the efforts to create an enabling environment for volunteers in Serbia, and to highlight critical and regressive provisions in the current draft Law. The media attendance in presented an additional opportunity to raise public awareness about the shortcomings of the draft Law. Following the conference, the State Secretary of the Ministry of Youth extended an invitation to ECNL to join a working group which the Ministry will be commissioning to prepare a draft Law on Youth, which we accepted. Among other issues, the draft Law will address youth umbrella organizations and their representation in various governmental bodies.