2005

The 2005 Youth Session dealt with the topics of globalization, society, mobility and travelers, borders, the army, money, school and work, as well as terrorism and the media. The last topic caused controversy, as the Youth Session worked this year with the controversial "European Security Advocacy Group (ESAG)," which advocated military counterterrorism. The demands of the Youth Session were also controversial: a guaranteed entitlement to income-dependent financed crèche places, the short-term establishment of locations for Travellers, a ban on major redundancies at profitable companies, a harmonized education system, and "the abolition of the army and at the same time the development of a civil disaster control system". With regard to the international development cooperation (DC), the young people demanded that the Federal Council and Parliament should fulfil the UN Millennium Development Goal and invest 0.7% of GDP annually for DC, as well as "abolish the legal distinction between tax fraud and tax evasion and provide legal and administrative assistance to other states even in cases of simple tax evasion." Following an ESAG-funded panel and presentation by Lt. Col. Michael Chandler, Chairman of the "Monitoring Group on Sanctions against Al Qaeda, the Taliban and Associates," the young people focused on dialogue instead of violence in their statement: "Differentiated and balanced reporting leads to an increase in awareness among the population. This is one of the prerequisites for promoting dialogue between peoples and cultures."