Tunis Some 180 Libyan youth will be attending in four-week long workshops for promoting Positive Peace, starting from Tuesday, organized by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) through funding from the government of Italy.

The series of workshops will encourage Libyan youth to look forward to the future instead of looking back at the differences of the past, said a statement published by the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Tuesday.

The participation of young people is crucial for the development and stability of Libya, said Zintan's Mayor Mostafa Al Baroni, one of the main supporters of the workshops under the framework of the Nicosia Initiative, which is led by the European Committee of the Regions in support of Libyan municipalities.

These workshops will be a strong step in spreading peace and coexistence in Libya through increasing the ability and awareness of youth to address the needs of their communities, he added.

For his part, UNICEF Special Representative to Libya Abdel-Rahman Ghandour said: This generation of young women and men in Libya stand at the border between political instability and conflict and the future of prosperity, peace and humanity."

The launch of these workshops is an important step to support young Libyans by giving them the tools, skills and potentially the funding they need to create change in their communities," he explained.

After attending the workshops, participants will return to their home cities and be encouraged to start campaigning to raise awareness in their communities about positive peace. A joint UNICEF-IEP panel will also select the most innovative projects to be funded and implemented at a local level in Libya, the statement said.

Source: International Islamic News Agency