The goal of the project is to increase the institutional and parliamentary participation of young people, though a series of joint activities of 20 young people, members of the UNICEF Youth Board, and 10 MPs - mentors in the National Assembly.

The first meeting was held today in the National Assembly, where the young people got acquainted with the parliament’s functions and work, with their future mentors, MPs, members and deputy members of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, as well as with the project activities in the coming period.

The Country Director at Westminster Foundation for Democracy, Zeljka Pantelic thanked the young people from the UNICEF Youth Board and the MPs for their interest and engagement in project “Parliamentoring”, especially the Committee on the Rights of the Child, as a rare place where young people and decision-makers can work together on achieving the same goals.

Project “Parliamentoring” is an initiative modelled after the UK Youth Parliament, and its central activity, in addition to learning about work of the parliament and training and educational workshops, will be the MPs’ mentoring young people on topics related to all forms of violence involving young people. The work on the project will be organised in small groups and will last from October 2024 to February 2025 and cover topics of cyber violence, inclusion and peer violence, consequences of violence in terms of social exclusion and mental health, and prevention of violence in schools.

The members of the UNICEF Youth Board and the mentor MPs were enthusiastic about participating in the project, while the project implementers pointed out that this is an opportunity to show that our institutions are open to young people, as well as for young people to show that they are not passive and disinterested in social problems.

The 10 members and deputy members of the Committee on the Rights of the Child who responded to the open call to participate in the project are: Zagorka Aleksic, Dr Lidija Sarac, Elvira Kovacs, Dr Dragana Rakic, Milija Miletic, Dr Tijana Peric Diligenski, Dr Emese Uri, Branimir Jovanovic, Vesna Nedovic and Marina Mijatovic.

Project “Parliamentoring”is implemented on the basis of the Memorandum of Understanding between the National Assembly and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.