The seminar for 32 secondary school students from eight cross-border municipalities and cities from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia was organized from November 28 to December 1, 2013 in Bijeljina. The main goal of the seminar was to strengthen the capacities of youth to identify the problems in their local communities and find the ways for their active resolution.
The secondary school students from Bijeljina, Orasje, Gradacac, Doboj East, Ruma, Indjija, Sremska Mitrovica and Stara Pazova were taught about human rights, minority rights and the mechanisms for their protection, intercutural and multicultural concepts, sterotypes and prejudice, non-violents action and peaceful conflict resolution.
A Grammar school student from Bijeljina, Milan Kapuran thinks that: „if we want to live together more harmoniously, to have a better life in general and cooperate at all levels, we have to abandon sterotypes and prejudice“.
„Discrimination is one of the largest issues facing youth nowadays since the people in our society have a hard time accepting something different„ says Ivona Gasparic, a student from Indjija.
After they attended the seminar in Bijeljina this group of secondary school students will be travelling to Ruma in December 2013, where they will learn about youth activism and work on the creation of action plans in order to solve the most frequent issues facing youth in these local communities. The action plans will be conducted in cooperation with the local Youth Commissions/Youth Offices and local authorities.
Tje financial funds for the realization of the project „Youth – Most Important Driving Engine of Our Region“, which is implemented by the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Republika Srpska based in Bijeljina and the Center for Equitable Regional Development based in Belgrade, were provided by the European Union within the IPA Cross-border Programme Serbia – Bosnia and Herzegovina.
More information you can find on web site Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Republika Srpska (local i English language) and on web site CenTriR
Students about seminars held in Bijeljina and Ruma – Video: CenTriR i YouTube
