Students meet top Albanian officials as part of OSCE project on active citizenship

Sixty high-school students from the Albanian towns of Lezha, Puka, Korça, Kukës and Peshkopi, met on 2 December 2014 with high-level state officials, including President Bujar Nishani, as part of an OSCE project aimed at strengthening the participation of citizens – especially young people – in decision-making processes at the local and central level. The goal was to enable them become active citizens, to promote a sense of civic responsibility and a better understanding of what democracy means. 

“It is not sufficient to have a right to democracy. That right should be exercised for democracy to happen. We all as citizens have the responsibility to act rather than just complain and wait for things to happen,” the Head of the OSCE Presence in Albania, Ambassador Florian Raunig, said at the meeting with President Nishani.

The students met representatives of several ministries and also visited the premises of the Parliament.

The students’ participation in the project was an opportunity for them to meet the mayors, municipal councillors, civil society and international organizations, gaining the benefits of active citizenship.

In Lezha, the students prompted a decision of the municipal council to dedicate a special day to the town’s castle; in Korça, the students initiated an awareness-raising campaign on recycling; and they worked together with the municipality in Puka to repair the road to the school.

The OSCE Presence also invited the students to offer their views on the topic Democracy – a civic right or a civic duty? and the thirteen best essays will soon be published in a book.

This is the third year in a row that the OSCE Presence in Albania has worked with high-school students to help them have a voice in the decision-making process. Visits such as today’s and publications where students express their views on democracy have become a tradition. Beyond the duration of the project, the students have engaged to keep being active citizens through initiatives to improve life in their communities.