International Conference on Drugs and Young People “Providing an enabling
environment for young people to make choices” – September 2004, Melaka,
Malaysia. Call for Abstracts

The World Youth Foundation (WYF) in cooperation with the Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Ministry of Youth and Sports
Malaysia, Melaka State Government, Ted Noffs Foundation, Australia etc will be
organizing the “ International Conference on Drugs and Young People “Providing
an enabling environment for young people to make choices”. The conference has
been tentatively scheduled to be held in September 2004

The Abstract Committee is now accepting abstract submissions from those who
would like to make presentations during the conference. Abstract submissions are
invited from scholars, policy/think tank researchers, NGOs and international
agencies and others . The deadline for submissions is June 30, 2004.

Topics:
Overview of Drug Use Trends in Asia and strategies in countering them
Challenges and Effective Responses
Nightclub culture – dancing on drugs –what have we done and what can we do
Relationship between production, consumption and distribution of illegal drugs
and terrorism
A development approach to drug use by young people
Unemployment, poverty and drug dependency among young people

Working Groups
(Issues addressed in working groups will include, but not restricted to) :
Maximum 3 speakers excluding moderator

· Alcohol and harm reduction
· Media and harm reduction
· Drug Related Crime and anti-social behaviour
· Drug use and Stigma
· Sex and Drugs
· HIV/AIDs and Drugs: Double jeopardy - WHO
· Teenage/youth culture and new consumer tendencies
· Mental Health and Drug

Guidelines
1. The abstract must address clearly any of the conference themes or objectives.
2. Abstracts should be no more than 500 words and should summarise the
presentation, identify questions or issues addressed, outline the results or
conclusions and format presentation. The time for each presentation will be 30
minutes for papers, 10 minutes for discussions/questions and 1.5 hours for
working group presentations. The title of the abstract should give some
indications of the content of the presentation.
3. A author may be allowed to present up to two abstracts
4. The abstract must be written in English.
5. Capitalize the entire title and do not abbreviate. Give the family names, in
capitals, for every author
6. Use of standard abbreviations is desirable. Place special or unusual
abbreviations in brackets after the full word the first time it appears
7. Do not include graphs, tables and reference in the abstract.

Notes:
1. Abstracts are subject to the approval of the Abstract Committee
2. Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection by 31st July 2004. No
guarantee of acceptance or rejection will be given prior to this date.
3. We prefer the abstract to be submitted electronically (virus free) by email.
However, abstracts send by post, fax or courier will also be accepted. In such
cased the organizers will not be responsible for any typographical error that
may incur in the process of encoding the accepted abstract.
4. Abstracts must be at least typewritten

Call for Participants

The World Youth Foundation (WYF) in cooperation with the Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Ministry of Youth and Sports
Malaysia, Melaka State Government, Ted Noffs Foundation, Australia etc will be
organizing the “ International Conference on Drugs and Young People “Providing
an enabling environment for young people to make choices”. The conference has
been tentatively scheduled to be held in September 2004

Objectives
§ To create a better understanding among young people of the causes, nature and
extent of the problem of drug abuse among young people.
§ To better inform young people the various perspectives on drug and substance
use.
§ To examine existing approaches to substance prevention in order to develop new
drug and substance use prevention programs that are youth-focused and
youth-friendly.
§ To consider those strategies that work and those that do not, and in
particular to consider:

1. The effectiveness of existing laws, policies, programs and services;
2. The impact to the community and in particular at-risk youth;
3. The effectiveness of current resource allocations in targeting the problem of
drug and substance use;
4. The role of civil society, government, and the private sectors.

§ To recommend a future course of action
§ To identify ways to improve existing strategies, programs and services.
§ To engage young people to be involved with drug use prevention programs.

Participation
· Youth representatives from various national youth coordination councils
· representatives of collaborating Ministries and international non-governmental
organizations working on drug and substance use related aspects
· representatives of United Nations agencies.
· participants from the various youth bodies in Malaysia

Criteria:
· Must be proficient in English
· Move have knowledge on issues pertaining to the conference
· Must be able to contribute positively to the objectives of the conference
· Preferable from national youth organizations but not restricted thereto
· Be young people from the age of 18-
· Geographical and gender balance will be respect

Those interested in participating are requested to write to the Foundation at
wyf@... or fax 06 2820411 for application forms.

Applications forms will be available from 20th June 2004. Completed applications
forms should reach the Foundation latest by 31st July 2004. The Foundation will
provide local hospitality and internal travel only for successful participants.
Selected participants will be informed latest by 1st August 2004.

World Youth Foundation
142/2 Complex Munshi Abdullah
Jalan Munshi Abdullah
75100 Melaka, Malaysia
Email: wyf@...
Tel: 606 2815196/7, Fax:606 2820411
www.wyf.org.my