SPECIAL PROGRAMMES & PROJECTS

10. 4. 2010. Training Center

The Training Center (TC) is in charge of conducting education within the program of the Initiative. The employees at the Training Center plan seminars and training sessions, chose adequate lecturers and trainers, and participate in the creation of the educational program.

Many of the trainers are young people who had passed the course in the earlier program of the Initiative Training for Trainers, and acquired knowledge and skills necessary for conducting training sessions, planning and organizing campaigns and public advocacy…

“Days of Sarajevo” Festival

Since 2007, the Initiative has been organizing the “Days of Sarajevo“ Festival annually, as a symbolic reminder of the start of the four-year siege of Sarajevo. The festival is attempting to renew the connections severed by the war during the last decade of the twentieth century, and especially to reach the young people in Serbia — the post-war generation which has no political consciousness or historical knowledge on the consequences of the siege of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, nor the knowledge on cultural events there.

The last, third festival was held from 14 to 17 May 2009. On this occasion, more that 250 guests from Sarajevo presented to Belgrade the cultural and social life of their city. During the four days of the festival, around 5000 people were introduced to the Sarajevo cultural scene through concerts, exhibitions, four plays, film features, and DJ appearances. www.danisarajeva.com

My Initiative

My Initiative (MI) is a network of young people all over Serbia who advocate respect for human rights, facing the past and the inclusion of the young in public and political life. This network was formed in 2006 through the campaign for boycotting the Constitution Referendum, organized by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights.

Since that time, thousands of young people from the whole Serbia have passed through MI, participated in various campaigns, most notably the campaigns which focused on the mobilization of young people to vote (“We are important “, “Mobilization of Civil Serbia“). The activists of My Initiative are filled with desire, energy and vision, and ready to fight for building a modern and civil Serbia.

They are motivated to take over the initiative and start influencing the solutions for problems which surround them, because they are aware of the fact that people are important, not territories, that everyone has the right to love whoever he/she wants, and that they do not have years to waste! www.mojainicijativa.org

Belgrade Summit

From 4 to 6 December 2009, the Initiative had organized the Belgrade Summit, in which more than 300 young political leaders and activists for human rights from the Western Balkans and other parts of Europe and the world participated. The Summit also gathered representatives of institutions, member states and the EU Presidency, as well as US officials.

As the first event of this sort in the region, it was held with the intention of establishing permanent dialogue and cooperation of young activists in the countries of the Western Balkans, and maintaining permanent communication of the young, the future leaders of this region, with the officials of the European Union. Therefore, at the summit on problems and challenges in the region, the young talked to the decision-makers in the EU, the European Commission Director for Western Balkans Pierre Mirel, and the MP of the European Parliament Doris Pack.

The activists from the region and the whole world discussed the position of the Western Balkans in the EU, the relations and cooperation in the region, facing the recent mutual past, the rule of law and the implementation of transitional laws, freedom of movement, the role of the young in the process of decision-making… The young also discussed the global perspective of cooperation and decided that that the “Democratic Youth Network“ web portal (www.democraticyouth.net), moderated by the Initiative, should be used as a place for exchanging information, knowledge and good practice of young activists at the global level.

Within the Summit, the Belgrade premiere of the anti-war play “General of a Dead Army“ of the Albanian theatre in Skopje was held at the Yugoslavian Drama Theater. This theater troup last visited Belgrade thirty years ago. The play “Jail of the Danube Region“ was performed at the Center for Cultural Decontamination.

The participants of the Summit adopted the Belgrade Declaration, in which they demand from the Governments in the region to apply all mechanisms of transitional justice, implement the adopted laws and enable a more active participation of the young in public life. The Declaration also specifically asks for Kosovo documents to be recognized in the whole region, and support for forming of the Regional commission for establishing facts on war crimes on the territory of former Yugoslavia (RECOM). The Initiative’s network has called all institutions to support the Belgrade Declaration, implement the reached conclusions from the summit, and in that way open a dialogue between officials and future leaders on the reform of the Western Balkans societies and the process of joining the EU.

The Declaration was sent to all the institutions in the region and the European Union, in a coordinated action of the Initiative’s network in the region on 10 December, the International Human Rights Day.

The Summit will be held annually in different Western Balkans centers, and will represent a permanent means of communication of young human rights activists in the region, as well as an opportunity for the EU officials to hear the opinions on the problems in the Western Balkans from the young people themselves. www.belgradesummit2009.com