WEXFO UTØYA YOUNG EXPERTS
About the event
WEXFO Utøya Young Experts (WUYE) gathers young innovators, activists, and community leaders to highlight how young people locally and globally fight for freedom of expression. We want to ensure that young people’s perspectives, suggestions, and calls for action are clearly expressed and taken into account during the WEXFO congress in Lillehammer in the days following the event. WYE is also in charge of one of the sessions at WEXFO 2024.
On Sunday 26 May, we will arrange a trip to Utøya for a group of WEXFO participants. They will have the opportunity to meet and dicuss with our young experts, in addition to experiencing a day on the island. In the afternoon we change the location for WEXFO Young Experts from Utøya to Lillehammer and WEXFO 2024. They will take part in the congress on Monday 27 May, both as audience members and some of them on stage. On Tuesday 28 May, they will contribute as professional resources to the Youth People’s Meeting, where they can lead workshops, participate in panels, etc.
World Expression Forum will:
- be an inspiration internationally, nationally, and locally.
- be a hub, the central international meeting place for everyone who is concerned with freedom of expression.
- influence developments through reports and projects, discussions in the Forum and summary afterwards.
- share experiences, but especially search for best practices for improvement.
- seek cooperation with others to develop offers of Forum gatherings elsewhere as well.
- participate in developing the local cooperation in the region on freedom of expression, with
institutions such as the Norwegian Festival of Literature , Lillehammer UNESCO City of Literature and ICORN. - reflect diversity in the work and in the organization.
World Expression Forum (WEXFO) was established as an ideal joint stock company on 20 August 2021.
Norway is one of the countries in the world with the highest degree of freedom of expression, according to Freedom of Expression Index (Our World in Data). Lillehammer is a UNESCO City of Literature, an ICORN city of refuge for artists at risk, and is the host of the biggest literature festival in Scandinavia. Both the city, the region (Innlandet) and Norway as a country are committed to supporting freedom of expression around the world.
WEXFO wants to inspire progress for freedom of expression on all levels of society – internationally, nationally and locally.