Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijan's Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Intigam Babayev has said the participation of representatives from 115 countries in the Global Forum on Youth Policies has been confirmed.

The participants of the event, which is slated for October 28-30, 2014 in Baku, are divided into four categories. The first category includes 200 youth ministers and other high level government officials. 200 participants of non-governmental agencies nominated by their respective governments are included in the second category, 200 participants of youth, youth organizations representatives and youth policy experts in the third and 100 participants of experts in the fourth category will lead the Global Forum's work.

High level officials such as Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UN Fund of Population (UNFPA), Maher Nasser, Acting Head of UN Department of Public Information (UNDPI), Marta Vieira da Silva, UNDP Goodwill Ambassador who won FIFA Women's World Player of the five years in a row will join to the Global Forum to be convened by the UN Development Program, the Office of UN Secretary General's Envoy on Youth, UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the Azerbaijani government.

Sharing his opinion about the forum, Babayev stressed the importance of global interest in this forum.

He said it is an utmost priority for Azerbaijan to host the Global Forum at the highest level.

"On the participation issue, I would like to mention that there is a quota identified per UN member countries and this procedure is equal for all of members. Unfortunately, there is false information created in the media that Ebola affected countries are restricted to join the event. We, organizers, are ready to host any registered participants regardless of their religion, nationality and ethnicity and etc. The problem here is that some countries have nominated more candidates for the offered quotas. We informed them about the existing rules and impossibility of such actions," Babayev said.

Some 41 countries with ministers, 12 countries with a dedicated youth ministers, 20 countries with deputy ministers and 42 countries with heads of division will be represented at the Global Youth Forum. In general, the participation of 700 people is expected at the forum.