From 24 to 27 November, the International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) held its 51st General Assembly (GA) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The GA was organised in partnership with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF), as well as support from Dutch liberal parties VVD and D66, who currently are the largest and the second-largest party in the Dutch parliament respectively.
With its long liberal tradition, the Netherlands has a strong reputation for standing up for human rights and individual freedoms, both domestically and abroad — particularly when it comes to standing up for the rights of LGBTIQ+ people. This, combined with the fact that 2022 is IFLRY’s 75th anniversary, meant the IFLRY Bureau chose “Take Pride in Liberalism — 75 years of fighting for human rights” as the theme for the event.
In light of this, it was particularly fitting to have Lisa van Ginneken (D66), the first transgender member of the Dutch parliament, speak at the opening of the GA. In her speech she focused on the fight for transgender equality, explaining that a new Dutch law proposal to ease the changing of a person’s official gender (i.e. what it says in your passport) had met with considerate opposition and misinformation, and pointing out that even though Argentina has progressive gender laws, the country stood out for the amount of transgender people that were killed there in recent years, which to Van Ginneken meant that the fight for transgender rights cannot be about campaigning for laws alone, but that it also has to focus on promoting an atmosphere of acceptance and understanding.
In keeping with the theme of fighting for human rights. IFLRY awarded its annual freedom award posthumously to Ukrainian soldier and human rights and anti-corruption campaigner Roman Ratushnyi, who had died in Ukraine in June defending his country from the Russian invasion. The GA also included various fringe meetings, focusing on media freedoms, political education through non-formal education, media preparedness and LGBTIQ+ rights.
FNF kindly hosted the fringe on media freedoms. With intimidation, arrest, and repressive laws designed to combat alleged false reporting on the rise, and the effectiveness of the EU’s response through its Digital Services Act and Media Freedom Act hotly debated, there certainly was a lot to discuss. The meeting turned into an interesting discussion on the practical work that various organisations are doing to support and defend journalists. It also debated solutions to the problem of financing independent media while keeping them accessible to a wider public.
Apart from the thematic aspects, of course every GA has plenty of procedural items on the agenda. Being the supreme decision-making body of the federation means there is always much to discuss and decide. Of particular note this GA was an update to the IFLRY statutes that introduces an Advisory Council. This will be a body of three experienced people from the IFLRY and/or wider liberal network, which will give support and guidance to the IFLRY Bureau, and improve the organisation’s institutional memory.
And last but not least, a new Bureau was also elected at this GA, with Bram Roodhart (Netherlands) elected as President, Valentine Martin (Belgium) as Secretary General, Sam Hudis (USA) as Treasurer, and Aliona Dobryden (Ukraine), Abdallah Abdoh (Jordan), Benjamin Feviet (France) and Rami Hafez (Lebanon) elected as Vice Presidents.