Speak Act Change

EDITORIAL POLICY 2017

The Region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Sexual and reproductive health and rights have been increasingly threatened in recent years, facing obstacles from growing conservative populism, funding cuts for organisations active in the field, and the persistence of mis/(dis)information.
In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, traditional values as well as societal responses to the collapse of the Soviet Union have posed many challenges to these rights – among them the forced marriage of young girls, continued societal disapproval of LGBTQI+ rights, and increasing levels of HIV and AIDS, especially amongst marginalised populations. Main goal of the Platform is to highlight these issues and to encourage the youth to become a part of the platform.

Most contributions to the site will be made by youth advocates who are active in the fields of SRHR, gender equality, peacebuilding and meaningful youth participation. Most of these activists will be from or be active in the region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. However, if somebody who is not from this region also wants to contribute with some articles, resources, events, opportunities or debate is also more than welcome.
The opinions expressed in the Our Voices section of this site are those of the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the official positions or policies of PETRI Sofia or any of its funding partners.

Content must address current issues in fields of sexual and reproductive health and rights, youth participation in activism and advocacy, gender equality and peace building, as well as the responses or envisaged responses of youth activists to these issues.
Each article should have a specific message and hook that will inspire audiences to read on.
Personal experiences and use of the first person is allowed, however, these experiences must be related back to a broader issue in one of the aforementioned themes.
Issues addressed should be grounded in facts and researched as well as related to personal experience.
Articles should be presented in an original manner and should be timely and relevant.
Descriptive articles of a singular activist / advocacy event should be complemented by a broader perspective as well as facts and figures where possible.
Links to advocacy tools (events / resolutions / relevant NGOs) related to the content of the submitted articles are highly encouraged.

Use of the first person is allowed / encouraged.
Content will generally be based on personal experience therefore any manner of tone is allowed (academic / light hearted / challenging / practical).
Acronyms are allowed and they must be explained upon first appearance.

One’s user adds the article with hate speech system automatically will highlight this words and it will not be visible.
Admin is not a responsible for irrelevant article or resources uploaded by users.
Admin will get the email and will be able to delete this article.

Youth advocate who is active in the field of SRHR // political advocacy // gender equality // peacebuilding
Interested in sharing personal stories and experiences from the field(s)
Hoping to learn from others’ experiences // best practices
Hoping to gain insight into the different challenges faced by activists in different countries // regions
Will engage in advocacy platform when it is launched

Adult // expert who works in the field of meaningful youth participation // SRHR // gender equality // peacebuilding
Interested in learning about youth leaders’ experiences on the ground // current situation in a particular country [in which they work or where they are from]

Reader who is interested in SRHR // youth participation// advocacy// gender equality // peace building // current affairs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

All users/authors can register on the platform as a user by filling the registration form.
The users/authors can add their biography with a name, a position, a picture, an affiliation and an email address, as well as a brief sentence description outlining who they are, what they work in and a few personal quirks.
After registration users/authors can upload articles, resources, events and discussion topics.
Articles need to be approximately 1000 words.
Links to other sites are encouraged and will be displayed as a hyperlink and / or as a list at the bottom of the article.