Margareta spoke in a panel at the "Building a common agenda for prevention in the Western Balkans" conference in Podgorica
On March 21st and 22nd, our team member Margareta attended the regional conference "Building a Common Agenda for Prevention in the Western Balkans" in Podgorica. The Western Balkans Coalition for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Crimes Prevention (CGMAP) organized the conference in cooperation with Impunity Watch and with the support of the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe. At the invitation of our partner organisation, the Center for Post-Conflict Research from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Margareta participated as a speaker in one of the thematic panels. She also had the opportunity to attend and contribute to the Coalition's internal meeting, of which YIHR Croatia has been a member since 2017.
The conference was attended by civil society organizations, representatives of embassies and international organizations (OSCE, EU) from Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The conference aimed: 1) to strengthen civil society, especially on the grassroots level and through the involvement of policymakers, 2) to build alliances and encourage cooperation and solidarity through the work of CGMAP, 3) to develop and adopt a common agenda and to identify future joint actions, 4) to define the strategy and methodology of CGMAP's work.
On the first day of the conference, the opening speech focused on transitional justice in the region was delivered by the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović. Virtual messages were delivered by the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, Judge Graciela Gatti Santana and Christian Guillermet-Fernández, president of the Global Action Against Mass Atrocity Crimes (GAAMAC).
The conference consisted of the following panels: 1) Civil Society and Prevention: Dealing with increased denial and revisionism, 2) Victims and Reparations: A grassroots perspective, 3) Healing from the Past: Psychosocial support and education, and 4) Civil Society and the Media: Dealing with the past in the age of new technology. Being a part of the panel on psychosocial support and education, Margareta spoke about the importance of education and working with young people on topics concerning dealing with the past and transitional justice, as well as activism and advocacy. She emphasized that working with young people is particularly important as young people are not only a societal resource of the present but also representatives of the desirable future.
Our former YIHR team member, Branka Vierda, also participated in the conference as a moderator of the last panel on dealing with the past in the age of new technologies. During the conference, the Center for Post-Conflict Research awarded the "Ordinary Heroes" award to Dunja Mijatović and representatives of the Movement of Mothers of the Srebrenica and Žepa Enclaves. The “Ordinary Heroes” was previously also awarded to our Branka Vierda,
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