Educational reform efforts have been recommended, developed and implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) by various small and large organizations for several years. One significant initiative was the Shared Modernization Strategy implemented by the European Commission in 2001 and 2002, which sought to integrate local actors and experts in the reform and modernization process. In the summer of 2002, a broader, widely supported, coordinated and dedicated reform effort was initiated by the OSCE, which raised the profile of the issue of education as a key element of peace building, economic growth and post-war reconstruction.
Topic:
Civil Society, Education, Peace Studies, and Regional Cooperation
The ECMI project “Negotiation and Capacity Building in Montenegro” was launched with the aim to establish a Track II informal negotiation process providing a forum for interethnic dialogue between Serbian and Montenegrin communities, which includes minority communities from the Sandžak border region. Through a series of workshops, the project aims to help promote dialogue, identify issues of common concern and assist in delivering concrete benefits as well as building confidence between the communities involved. By focusing the debate on the concrete needs of these communities, the project seeks to facilitate thinking about future interethnic relations in a less charged atmosphere, irrespective of the deeper political questions on the future constitutional arrangements of the two republics.
Topic:
Civil Society, Education, Peace Studies, and Regional Cooperation
The ECMI Civil Society Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) began its effort on the role of Annex 8 legislation and implementation in autumn 2001 in order to provide a forum for experts to discuss an issue that had been largely neglected since the signing of the General Framework Agreement for Peace (GFAP, or the Dayton Peace Agreement) in 1995. Annex 8 of the GFAP established a Commission to Preserve National Monuments in the wake of the destruction that devastated the cultural heritage of BiH during the war 1992-1995. Through conversations with experts in BiH and from throughout the region, ECMI recognized the potential that this Annex could have on peace-building and reconciliation in BiH.
Topic:
Civil Society, Peace Studies, and Regional Cooperation
The ECMI project “Negotiation and Capacity Building in Montenegro” was launched with the aim to establish a Track II informal negotiation process providing a forum for interethnic dialogue between Serbian and Montenegrin communities, which includes minority communities from the Sandžak border region. Through a series of workshops, the project aims to help promote dialogue, identify issues of common concern and assist in delivering concrete benefits as well as building confidence between the communities involved. By focusing the debate on the concrete needs of these communities, the project seeks to facilitate thinking about future interethnic relations in a less charged atmosphere, irrespective of the deeper political questions on the future constitutional arrangements of the two republics.
Topic:
Civil Society, Peace Studies, and Regional Cooperation
The Standing Technical Working Group was established in March 2001 to address important issues of public policy in Kosovo/a at a technical level. It is composed of experts from Kosovo/a NGOs, the political parties and other civil society representatives. Its membership is fully interethnic and it prides itself on being able to conduct debate in Kosovo/a in an interethnic way. The Group reviews technical aspects of current policy and formulates proposals and critical questions in relation to them. It then seeks to engage the relevant appointed local and international representatives on these issues. In response to the changed political environment in Kosovo/a following the Assembly elections in November 2001, the Group sought to enhance its role in public policy analysis and development through the establishment of four expert working groups. These Expert Committees (ECs) would devote their activities in 2002 to monitoring policy developments in four areas considered most relevant to the needs of all communities in Kosovo/a. One of these is the Expert Committee on Health and Social Welfare.
In 2000, the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) initiated the Baltic Project “Accession to the EU and National Integration in Estonia and Latvia”. In the framework of the project, one international seminar and several regional workshops were organized in 2000 and – 2001. These events addressed different minority rightsrelated issues such as society integration and multiculturalism, state policies in the field of minority education and the use of minority languages, legislative reforms and the role of the third sector.
This workshop was organized and fully sponsored by ECMI in collaboration with the Kaliningrad Oblast Duma as a follow-up of the ECMI Roundtable meeting “Migration and Forced Migration in the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia”, which took place in Flensburg from 22 to 23 June 2001.
During the recent armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) the destruction of the cultural heritage of several communities was an undeclared aim of some of the parties to the conflict. Over 1,000 mosques were destroyed or damaged, and hundreds of Catholic and Orthodox churches were also damaged or destroyed. Non-sacred structures suffered as well, most famously the Ottoman era bridge in Mostar, and hundreds of other bridges, Roman ruins, and medieval sites have suffered from a combination of the damage of war and a decade of neglect.
Topic:
Civil Society, Non-Governmental Organization, and Peace Studies
The ECMI project “Negotiation and Capacity Building in Montenegro” was launched with the aim to establish a Track II informal negotiation process providing a forum for interethnic dialogue between the Serbian and Montenegrin communities which include minority communities from the Sandžak border region. Through a series of workshops, the project aims to help promote dialogue, identify issues of common concern and assist in delivering concrete benefits as well as building confidence between the communities involved. By focusing the debate on the concrete needs of these communities, the project seeks to facilitate discussions about future interethnic relations in a less charged atmosphere, irrespective of the deeper political questions on the future constitutional arrangements of the two republics.
This project was established in the second half of 2000 to strengthen the development of civil society in Kosovo/a. It seeks to generate dialogue among the different ethnic and political communities in Kosovo/a and to enhance the sense of local ownership and democratic accountability of the emerging political structures in the territory. In particular, it seeks to create space for the participation of civil society and civil society organizations (NGOs) in those structures on a fully inter-ethnic basis.
Topic:
Civil Society, Non-Governmental Organization, and Politics