What is the Youth Initiative for Human Rights?
The Initiative is an independent, non-partisan, and non-profit civil society organization founded and registered in accordance with the Associations Act of the Republic of Croatia since 2008.
The Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Croatia is an organization founded by people from war and post-war generations, guided by the belief that a violent past must not be an obstacle to a prosperous future.
It was founded in 2008 as a civic association in the Republic of Croatia, in cooperation with a network of organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and Kosovo, with a European and Euro-Atlantic orientation. Because the recent violent past we experienced in these countries was interconnected. And because a prosperous future was, and we believe still is, Euro-Atlantic.
It derives its legitimacy not from elections or popularity, but from the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia and international human rights protection instruments, on the basis of which we protect and promote human rights from the perspective of our mission.
The Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Croatia operates with the conviction that contemporary democratic statehood is better than any previous state or political system. Each member organization of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights network has, since its founding, believed in the right to self-determination, but not in the redrawing of borders through violent expulsions, ethnic cleansing, genocide, or other systematic and mass violations of human rights. That is why from the very beginning we have considered Kosovo independent, Bosnia and Herzegovina indivisible, and we work to build all the states in which we operate as civic democracies.
Therefore, it places its focus on human rights violations committed by or in the name of the independent Republic of Croatia. Other Youth Initiative for Human Rights organizations act in the same way within their own states.
Because of this, as the Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Croatia, we have also carried out numerous research projects on crimes committed by Croatian forces, filed criminal complaints for war crimes, monitored war crimes trials, brought young people from the region to Petrinja, Vukovar, Knin, Osijek, Zagreb, and Dubrovnik to learn about the war, brought them to Gorski Kotar or facilitated dialogues to learn about peace, traveled with and took young people from Croatia to Mostar, Ahmići, and Stolac, as well as to that same Knin, Petrinja, and Osijek, to learn about civic responsibility and about the long shadow cast by systematic violence, erected memorials to people who are no longer with us due to injustice, and encouraged institutional cooperation in the search for the missing, in criminal proceedings, and in dialogue.
When we respond to the chant “For the homeland, ready” from an antifascist perspective, we do not mourn Yugoslavia nor are we ashamed of Croatian tradition. On the contrary, we defend the Constitution built on difficult historical lessons. Through our work, we help ensure the stability and development of the Republic of Croatia as a free European democracy. Better than the undemocratic socialism in which “brotherhood and unity” overnight becomes “knife, wire, Srebrenica” or “we will slaughter Croats”. And certainly better than fascism and Ustashism, which reduce the culture of this society to readiness for camps and slaughter. Through the Constitution, we rightly advanced one through self-determination and democratization, and once again completely renounced the other.
The Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Croatia therefore believes in two generations of Croatian veterans. The one that liberated us from fascism and Ustashism, and the one that enabled the rejection of communism, democracy, and the freedom of self-determination.
The Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Croatia will therefore continue in the coming period to do what it has done so far, and you can learn more about our plans here, and you can support us here.
Mission
YIHR Croatia promotes and protects human rights and civil liberties. It promotes them through public-facing actions, with a focus on situations where dominant or widely accepted social narratives relativize rights and freedoms or justify their violation. It protects them through direct advocacy for the rights and freedoms of individuals and social groups facing various, often systemic, threats.
Vision
Society in the Republic of Croatia is free, tolerant, and open, regulated by democratically accountable institutions guided by laws and practices consistent with internationally codified values of human rights and civil liberties. Society and the state address social and political problems, both domestically and internationally, constructively — fostering mutual respect, committing responsibly to reconciliation and peace, and protecting the rights and freedoms of all people.
In recognition of our efforts and our ability to inspire human rights activism across the Western Balkans, the YIHR Network was awarded the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize in 2019, the first non-governmental initiative to receive this prestigious distinction. In the same year, YIHR Croatia received the “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité” medal from the French Republic, as a result of our work which enables young to build shared narratives about the recent past.