International Center of Human Development (ICHD), one of the leading think-tanks in Armenia and is a part of the project “Youth participation in local democracy: shifting the engagement from theory into practice” supported by the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation, a project of the German Marshall Fund, organized international conference “Young Leaders in Support for Democracy Promotion Process: shifting the engagement from theory into practice” which was held in Yerevan, Armenia on November 6-8, 2012.

The conference  brought together representatives of various interested organizations from Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, Eastern Europe and other countries, as well as state authorities from state institutions and representatives from foreign missions. The major focus of the conference is the discussion and simulation of the youth-state cooperation.

The objective of the Conference was to discuss: 

• Dialogue, mutual respect and harmonization of democracy and human rights values under the framework of youth and state cooperation as basis for harmonic development and state-building in general.
• Possible ways to overcome obstacles through free and open exchange of information on the level of states and professional expertise collaboration.
• Priority areas for youth and state cooperation in EaP regions.