Amended Law Gives Venezuelan Youth More Autonomy

Mérida,
September 24^th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – On Tuesday, the National Assembly approved
modifications to the National Youth Law which establish the right of students
to occupy vacant job positions in places they have been volunteering, and creates
the National Institute of Popular Power of Youth.

The
National Assembly report said the law modifications aimed to "strengthen the popular
power of youth, so an article has been developed which, in its essence, is
about breaking with any bureaucratic concepts within the youth organisations."

Article
37 of the newly reformed law says, "Young students who provide a service to a
public or private company can choose to occupy vacant positions when they
finish their studies, according to the profession they have graduated from, and
as such, work places should prepare working formulas to include youth."

The
amendments also create the National Institute of Popular Power of Youth, which
will be a public institution with its own discretionary budget, headquartered
in Caracas.

The
new youth institute will coordinate, formulate, plan, articulate, and evaluate
youth policy, manage resources, and have other administrative, financial, and
technical functions. It will be ascribed to the office of the president's Chief
of Staff.

Currently,
there is the National Institute of Youth (INJ), which is ascribed to the
Ministry for Education. Lucas Grisolia from the INJ in Merida told Venezuelanalysis.com that so far,
the INJ hasn't had complete authority over its decisions.

"Before,
the Ministry of Education made a lot of the decisions, and this often included
people who are not young. Now, we have more autonomy," said Grisolia.

The law
amendments also create the Inter-Institutional Council of Popular Power of Youth
as an advisory organisation which will consult with other Popular Power
institutions as well as private institutions.

Finally,
the National Council of Popular Power of Youth was also created to be the
highest "representation of youth protagonism, with the authority to both
represent and guarantee the participation of youth in the designing of,
monitoring of, and evaluation of policies, plans and programs for youth,"
according to the National Assembly report.

Similar
such councils will also be created at state, municipal and community levels.