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Youth Initiative for Human Rights

• 24. 3. 2011.

  A CALL TO VOLUNTEER FOR RECOM

  If you wish to be a part of the largest youth networking in Serbia and region obtain new experiences, knowledge and friends, while fighting for a humane aim learn more about team work, campaign organizing, and public action

• 4. 3. 2011.

  A Three-Day Conference of Youth from Kosovo and Serbia Begins

  “We wish to create the space for the youth of Kosovo and Serbia to discuss the topics relevant for their generations. We don’t think the conference should offer ready-made solutions, nor do we all have to agree here. We wish, first and foremost, to get to know each other, and to talk about possible ways of overcoming the existing problems. I hope will come up with some recommendations that we can then forward to Belgrade and Prishtina officials. I also hope we will come up with possible activities and ways of cooperation,“ said Maja Micic, Director of Youth Initiative for Human Rights – Serbia (YIHR-Serbia) at the opening of the three-day conference of youth from Kosovo and Serbia “LinKS,” on March 4th 2011 in Becici, Montenegro.

• 14. 12. 2010.

  European Court of Human Rights Rules in Favour of Zivota Milanovic

  The Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) hereby welcomes the ruling rendered today by the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Zivota Milanovic vs. the Republic of Serbia, pursuant to the petition submitted by YIHR on October 2, 2007. According to the ruling, state bodies of the Republic of Serbia violated Article 3. and Article 14. of the European Convention on Human Rights.

• 3. 11. 2010.

  Dialogue of the young: Belgrade - Prishtina, B92 Info Channel

  Public dialogue between youth from Prishtina and Belgrade was held at the Belgrade Cultural Centre "Grad" on October 27, 2010. The public discussion between nine youths from the two cities ended the three-day visit of Prishtina students to Belgrade, organized from October 25 -- 27 by Youth Initiative for Human Rights, in scope of its Visiting Programme. Here you can watch the dialogue in its entirety, as it was broadcasted on B92 Info Channel, on October 28th.

• 18. 8. 2010.

  Call for Applications - Regional Internship Programme

  The Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) is pleased to announce an open competition for the Regional Internship Programme (RIP).

• 7. 7. 2010.

  „Dnevni Avaz” severely misleads the public

  The network of Youth Initiative for Human Rights (Initiative), which consists of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo, strongly denies the allegations from the text of the newspaper “Dnevni Avaz”, published 7th July 2010 under the title “Five more organizations have left RECOM”.

• 22. 6. 2010.

  New Policy School - Call for Applications

  The Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) hereby announces Call for Applications for enrollment of the fourth generation of New Policy School (NPS) students, which is to commence in late September 2010. The school is intended for students of social sciences, young lawyers, journalists, political parties’ youth, as well as activists of civil society organizations. Our lecturers are eminent professors from Serbia and the region, human rights activists, ambassadors with work experience in the Balkans, as well as experts in the domains of transitional justice and euro-integration.

• 15. 6. 2010.

  Call for applications for visiting program

  Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) has announced a call for applications for visits to Belgrade by youth from Preshevo and Bujanovac. In scope of four visits, to be organized between July and October 2010, 40 young people from the municipalities of Preshevo and Bujanovac will have a chance to visit state institutions, civil society organizations and media outlets, as well as meet with My Initiative movement activists during their three-day stay in Belgrade.

• 1. 6. 2010.

  Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia (2009)

  "Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia" (2009) report resulted from monitoring implementation of the Anti-Discrimination Law, the Law on Churches and Religious Communities and provisions of the Public Information Act which prohibit hate speech.

• 19. 4. 2010.

  Media in Serbia on RTS bombing

  In the early nineties of the 20th century the former Yugoslavia, as one of the rare communist countries in Eastern Europe which was not a part of the Soviet Bloc, attempts to enter a phase of democratization and liberalization. However, certain republics, members of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), assume nationalism as the ideology which was to replace communism. Rise in interethnic tensions and aggression of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) against Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia, followed by raids carried out by the Serbian Army in Kosovo, led to wars resulting in high number of casualties among civilian population. In the time of peace, civic freedoms become an integral part of reforms in each of the republics, now sovereign states of the former SFRY. Single-party political system was replaced by the multi-party one, but in each republic it was still dominated by large political parties. Constitutional reform in Serbia began in January, 1988, and was completed on March 28, 1989. Constitutional amendments IX-XLIX were promulgated. The day of promulgation of the new constitution was designated as the day when Serbia was returned its statehood and constitutional sovereignty on its entire territory.1 In 1990. the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) was founded in Serbia, helmed by Slobodan Milošević. The fi rst multy-party elections for the National Parliament since WW II were held on December 9 and 23, 1990. The Socialist Party of Serbia won 194 mandates of the total of 250.2 This party had the absolute majority. Simultaneously with elections for MPs, National Parliament of the Republic of Serbia also announced elections for the President of Serbia. The elections were held on December 9, 1990, and Slobodan Milošević was elected the President of Serbia.3 In addition to the political system, the media picture in Serbia was also changed. The fi rst independent radio and TV stations, as well as independent press, started emerging. By mid 1994. the number of independent radio and TV stations rose to 80.4 Unlike the independent media, the state television – Radio Television Serbia (from hereon referred to as RTS) had the coverage over almost the entire territory of Serbia. It was an effi cient media instrument for propaganda implemented by the SPS and its affi liate parties. Previously autonomous provinces within the Republic of Serbia, Vojvodina and Kosovo were abolished in 1989, pursuant to a decision made by the Serbian Parliament5, two years after Slobodan Milošević’s rise to power. The abolishment of the provinces’ autonomy results in escalation of confl icts in Kosovo between Albanians and Serb police. Parallel institutions emerge in Kosovo, Albanian and Serbian ones. Such a state continues throughout the fi nal decade of the 20th century. In spite of wars waged on the territory of former Yugoslavia, there were no major armed confl icts in Kosovo until 1998. Tensions between Albanians and Serbs culminated in the second half of the 1990s. Due to enhanced pressure exercised by the Serb police during the 1990s, Kosovo Albanians establish the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Armed confl icts unfold into war. Violation of human rights in Kosovo by Serb forces was the cause for aerial NATO intervention against FR Yugoslavia. It was launched without a United Nations’ Security Council resolution. NATO military intervention in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was launched on March 24, 1999, and continued through June 10, 1999. This was NATO’s second intervention since its establishment in 1949.6 Its fi rst military intervention was carried out against Bosnian Serbs during the war in Bosnia. During NATO’s aerial raids, a comprehensive campaign of violence, carried out by forces controlled by the FRY authorities and Serbia, was targeting civilians – Kosovo Albanians: killings, sexual abuse and premeditated destruction of mosques. The violence resulted in the exodus of at least 700,000 Kosovo Albanians from Kosovo between late March and early June of 1999. 7 NATO raids on FR Yugoslavia lasted for 78 days. NATO planes targeted military and civilian objects in the country, as well as media stations and repeaters, at the time mainly serving the regime of Slobodan Milošević. NATO intervention was an epilogue to the Serb-Albanian confl ict in Kosovo, and was ended by the act of signing the “Kumanovo Agreement”, i.e. military-technical agreement between the Yugoslav Army and NATO.8 FR Yugoslavia lost its territorial sovereignty over Kosovo by pulling out its army and police. This put an end to the Serb-Albanian armed confl ict which lasted between February 1998 and June 1999.9 The media played major role in creating and waging wars on the territory of former Yugoslavia. However, upon the institution of peace they remained a stronghold of the SPS. The RTS, as the most powerful reporting outlet, shall serve the ruling party until the changes that took place on October 5, 2000. The entire fi nal decade of the 20th century in Serbia’s media sphere was marked by the struggle for independent and fair reporting. Download PDF

• 11. 4. 2010.

  HUMAN RIGHTS

  Within the activities of the Human Rights program, the Initiative is investigating the violations of human rights with a focus on national and religious minorities, supervising the implementation of transitional laws and organizing the education of the young on human rights.

• 7. 4. 2010.

  Serbia begins to come to terms with its dark past

  Legislators condemn massacre of Muslims, but refuse to call it genocide In the early hours of the morning last Wednesday, the People's Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted a Declaration on the Condemnation of the Crime in Srebrenica with 127 votes in favour and 21 against, out of the total of 250. The supreme legislative body in Serbia had thus made the first step in what could mark the beginning of a long and arduous process of facing the dark legacy of the 1990s. It initiated a public debate which will inevitably expand and gradually cover a wide spectrum of topics relating to recent past. During the Yugoslav wars of the early 1990s, the small eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica was one of several UN Safe Areas. On July 11, 1995 the town was stormed by the Bosnian Serb Army under the command of generals Radislav Krstic and Ratko Mladic.

• 1. 4. 2010.

  Serbia: Supporters of Harsher Resolution Detained

  Serbian police detained nine activists of the NGO Youth Initiative for Human Rights in the night between Wednesday and Thursday for spraypainting "the heavy foreign word genocide" on the sidewalk in front of the Serbian Parliament building. On Wednesday a resolution condemning the Srebrenica massacre was adopted by the parliament, but the resolution did not call the crime a genocide.

• 27. 2. 2010.

  Newsletter "War Crimes in Serbia - Sandzak Case"

  On March 3rd, 2010 Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) organised public discussion "War Crimes in Serbia - Sandzak Case " in Belgrade Media Centre. Marking 17 years of crime in Strpci, YIHR prepared special edition of its newsletter, entitled "War Crimes in Serbia - Sandzak Case ". Download PDF