Central Asian Youth Network alumni visit Vienna to learn about OSCE

Seven students from the Central Asian Youth Network (CAYN) learned about the work of the OSCE and its institutions during a two-day study visit to Vienna, which concluded on 25 November 2016.

During the visit, the CAYN alumni who come from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, met with Secretary General Lamberto Zannier.

They attended a session of the OSCE Permanent Council and learned about the work of various units of the OSCE Secretariat, including the Conflict Prevention Centre, the Communication and Media Relations Section, the Representative on Freedom of the Media, the Transnational Threats Department, the Office of the Co-ordinator of Economic and the Environmental Activities, and the Office for the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings.

They also met with Anna-Katharina Deininger, the Special Representative of Germany’s  OSCE Chairmanship on Youth and Security, who had attended the July 2015 CAYN seminar marking 40 years since the Helsinki Final Act.

The students had the opportunity to talk to representatives of the OSCE Chairmanship, delegations from Austria, the Russian Federation and the United States as well as to have individual meetings with representatives from the Delegations of their home countries.

The visit was organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Astana with the financial and logistical support from other OSCE field operations in Central Asia and the Conflict Prevention Centre.

The Central Asian Youth Network was launched in 2004 to develop promising students' knowledge and understanding of contemporary security threats as well as of the OSCE's role in addressing these challenges.