On 27-28 September 2018, an International scientific and practical conference, The Role of Self-Governing Bodies in Strengthening Families and Upbringing Younger Generations, was held in Tashkent.
The list of its participants included over 20 foreign experts from 16 countries, including the "SCO family" states, plus representatives from the UN Development Programme, CIS and OSCE.
At the conference, the SCO Secretariat was represented by the Organisation's Deputy Secretary General Aziz Nosirov.
The conference agenda included a number of relevant matters relating to the role of self-governing bodies in strengthening the institution of the family, preserving family values, reproductive health and demographic development, increasing welfare and well-being of families, ensuring spiritual and moral upbringing of generations to come and forming the model of a modern family.
In his address to the conference participants, Aziz Nosirov pointed out that the key moral principles that had been characterising the people of the Central Asian countries since ancient times and had been preserved over centuries via the institute of mahallah, are in line with the principles of the Shanghai Spirit.
A total of 650 million young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are living on the territory of the SCO member states; 93 percent of them have received education. The SCO's youth policy aims at actively engaging young men and women into creating a promising future, promoting physical, intellectual and spiritual development among young generations, and ensuring its active participation in the political, economic and cultural life of the SCO member states.
He also noted that the SCO Secretariat had established a Youth League, which includes young men and women from 18 "SCO family" states. In November, 2018, the most active representatives of the Youth League will participate in the SCO's first Youth Assembly aimed at implementing the Organisation's youth policy, which had been outlined by the leaders of the SCO member states during the Qingdao Summit held in June.
During the SCO Qingdao Summit held on 10 June 2018, at the initiative of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the summit participants adopted a Joint statement of the SCO member states' leaders to the young generations and the Programme of action to implement it. The Organisation sees these fundamental documents as an important step towards the young people's forming stable immunity against the ideology of terrorism and extremism.