Active projects

Institutional framework, socio-economic transformation and political culture in FRY (Serbia and Montenegro) and Croatia  
Human Rights Protection, The Rule of Law and Civil Society Building in FRY (Serbia and Montenegro) and Croatia

Project Summary
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This Project has objectives in the field of theoretical and empirical research, in education and policy making. Theoretical and empirical research will be done by 37 project participants (17 from Croatia, 16 from Serbia, and 6 from Montenegro), and the results will be presented at four meetings, and also published in four books (in Serbo-Croatian, in all regional variants) as well as in these four books translated in English. Educational objectives will be realized through four seminars and workshops, which will follow each meeting, and which will be attended always by 25 graduate students and MA and Ph.D. candidates (10 from Croatia, 10 from Serbia, and 5 from Montenegro). Published books will be used as readings for seminars and workshops also as textbooks for Universities in Croatia and FRY and probably also in other Ex-Yugoslav countries. Educational and policy making aims will be attained also by an impact of this Project upon 40 invited participants for each meeting and seminar from the local region (NGO activists, government officials, local government representatives, media representatives, professionals from the region).
The young women and men with University education of different levels in both countries (FRY and Croatia) are mostly supposed to become representatives and leaders of political, economic, social, cultural development and civil society improvement. They will become in the recent future mostly responsible for the quality of the transition into liberal-democratic states, namely, for the merit of the rule of law implementation in FRY (Serbia and Montenegro) and Croatia. Their involvement into seminars, workshops will stimulate them to deepen and widen the knowledge about the past, nowadays and future development of referent states and societies. Critical debates and open discussions will stimulate them to accept the values of liberal-democratic order, of a political culture based on tolerance and mutual respect, of equal participation of women and men in civic, economic and political life, of the world peace, peace in the Balkans and European integration. Common participation of the young women and men from Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro will stimulate mutual understanding, friendship, healthy relations between the representatives of the future professional and political leaders from these countries. In addition, NGO activists, local governments and media representatives, political leaders, local professionals will be stimulated to promote the speech and behavior of tolerance and mutual understanding.
Project participants - University professors from Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, together with well educated young men and women from regional university centers will work together on better understanding of the historical legacy and the causes of the bloody breakup of SFRY, of similarities and differences built in independent life of the newborn countries, as well as of perspectives and capacities for the future liberal-democratic development in FRY and Croatia peaceful cohabitation.
This proposed collaborative analysis is an important precondition for supplying democratic political forces with reliable findings that could serve as the basis for enacting reforms leading towards a long-lasting stability of the former Yugoslavia region and Southeast Europe as a whole.
The public will be influenced by the positive example of intellectuals from Montenegro, Serbia and Croatia working together. The public presentation of the common work will have an impact on academics and the educated public, on the general public oriented towards democratic transformation, and on political leaders in these countries. Finally, public presentation of the project results will contribute to policy-making concerned with conflict resolution, and to the European integration of these countries.
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Theoretical research, empirical surveys, practical work through meetings, seminars, workshops, public visibility and impact actions, publishing of the books, policy-making initiatives based on the project results, the good example of inter-regional successful cooperation will all together represent actions aimed to promote political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights in the South East Europe. Gender perspective will be systematically integrated into the project realization concerning the overpassing of an authoritarian-patriarchal heredity as well as promoting equal participation of women and men in the rule of law implementation and civil society development in FRY (Serbia and Montenegro) and Croatia.
Seminars and workshops will mean for University students the real contribution to their educational improvement, to their work on MA and Ph.D. dissertations. Seminars and workshops will help to these young scholars to widen and deepen their knowledge, to develop multidisciplinary and comparative approach, and capacity for critical way of thinking. They will get acquainted with new theoretical insights about newborn countries, about the causes of the breakup of SFRY and the causes of an outburst of bloody wars in ex-Yugoslav region. They will also get an understanding about necessary changes in institutional and socioeconomic field, as well as in the field of political culture aimed at the rule of law implementation and civil society development in these countries and the Balkans region. They will exchange ideas and experiences concerned with the quality of everyday life and university education in their countries. They will get a chance to accept gender perspective as well as values of equal opportunity for all citizens (especially concerning ethnic groups and national minorities). They will improve awareness about an importance of human rights respect and protection as well as about necessity that all inhabitants of their countries who had committed atrocities and violations of human rights during the bloody wars should be punished. They will work together on overcoming nationalist and schauvinist sentiments - through deepening mutual friendship and through public anti-nationalist activity in their own countries. They will be in touch - through these seminars and workshops - with values of tolerance and mutual respect, of peace building, of preventing hate speech and behavior, and they will promote these values in the public domain of their own countries.
Theoretical and practical-political impact of the project on the University students (participants of four seminars, four workshops) will have multiplier effects in the near future when they become members of leading professional institutions and leading politicians. They will be than in a position to apply values of peaceful cohabitation, of economic exchange improvement and peace building in the region. They will also widespread anti-nationalist ideas and values. They will promote political culture of tolerance and mutual respect, and contribute to the European integration of the South - Eastern Europe. Young scholars will also be influenced to apply in their own everyday and family life the ideas of gender equality, of overpassing patriarchal and authoritarian gender and human relations of that type in general.
Local governments and media representatives, local politicians, NGO activists will spread forward the liberal-democratic ideas and the spirit of peace building, speech of tolerance and human rights respect which are expressed at our seminars and workshops.
Regional policy making impact, in accordance with the Stability Pact declaration, will be realized on the basis of suggested legal, institutional and other changes, i.e. changes in the field of constitutions, electoral laws, politics, economics, political culture.
The project support for civic initiatives aiming at equal participation of women and men, at peace building, at culture of tolerance and dialogue, will contribute to the rule of law implementation and civil society development in Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, but indirectly also in the Balkans region and Central and East Europe.
Our inter-regional academic network will mean a good example and stimulation for other types of inter-regional connections and common work. We will also offer the project results to all University centers and to the political as well as general public in the SE Europe.

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