The Youth Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (hereinafter referred to as SCO Youth Council) is a body responsible for coordinating the activities of youth organisations, associations and movements within the framework of relevant fields of the SCO member states’ activities.
The idea of creating an SCO youth assembly was voiced by President Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the SCO Heads of State Council held in Shanghai on 15 June 2006. On 4 May 2009, the Constituent Assembly of the SCO Youth Council was held in Yekaterinburg, where the participants adopted its founding documents – Regulations on the Youth Council, and the Declaration on the Establishment of the SCO Youth Council.
The main tasks of the SCO Youth Council are:
· to promote effective regional cooperation between national youth organisations, associations and movements of the SCO member states;
· to involve young people in the SCO member states in the implementation of humanitarian projects in the SCO member states, and to facilitate direct contacts and ties between youth organisations, associations and movements of the SCO member states;
· to provide assistance to the search for funding sources, partners and other forms of involvement needed for the implementation of youth projects of the SCO member states;
· to draft recommendations and proposals on improving conditions for humanitarian cooperation within the framework of the SCO;
· to exchange information for the benefit of promoting cooperation between national youth organisations, associations and movements of the SCO member states; and
· to draft plans and programmes of cooperation between national youth organisations, associations and movements of the SCO member states in the fields of cultural exchanges, sports and education.