Peace

Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • About Us
  • Dialogue
  • Trainings
  • Our Publications
  • Research
  • Language: English
    • English English
    • Norsk Norsk
    • Español Español

Kai Nygaard 27. June 2019

Children are building bridges where adults do not want to

Cohesion is being celebrated in the town Prijedor.

Bosnia-Herzegovina: While children celebrate the cohesion, several politicians play on disunity. Recently, hundreds of children attended a happening in the town of Prijedor.
-To create lasting peace and stability, the cohesion between people must be strengthened, says the Norwegian ambassador Guri Rusten.

-In parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina, children are socialized into specific ethnic groups. In these areas there are challenges such as children attending segregated schools, and some schools are physically divided with high fences.

This is told by Guri Rusten, the Norwegian ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina. A peace agreement was signed 24 years ago, but segregation remains a major challenge in parts of the country.

Whether you are Bosniak, Serb or Croat, is often crucial to where you live and choice of political party. Common meeting places are in short supply in many places.

-It is obvious that such a situation will be a challenge if hostile images against other groups are being built up. Hostile images are easier maintained when groups are living separate and do not meet. This is a challenge in parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina, says the Norwegian ambassador on telephone from Sarajevo.

Schools maintains segregation

Guri Rusten er Norges ambassadør i Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Guri Rusten is the Norwegian ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The segregation is partly maintained by the school system.

-Many of the residents are of mixed ethnicity, but before the children start school, they have to define themselves belonging to a specific group, says Rusten.

At the same time, there are examples of parents, teachers and children protesting against the separate school system. A number of measures and forces work for unity and meeting points. One of them is the Nansen Dialogue Center in the town Prijedor. The center has for many years created meeting places between the various groups of people, and works especially with children and young people. Recently, a large gathering at the Mrakovica Mountain was organized for the ninth time, with 350 students and teachers participating.

-This is a celebration of the multi-ethnic community we want in Bosnia-Herzegovina, says Tanja Milovanovic, the leader of the Nansen Dialogue Center in Prijedor.

-In this way, we promote dialogue, the multicultural and peace-building activities in the primary schools, she continues.

The happening was supported by local authorities, including the mayor of Sanski Most and Prijedor, and a representative from the Norwegian embassy was present.

-We have for many years worked with relationships between people, and we have helped establish and build relationships between institutions such as municipalities and schools, says Milovanovic.

Bringing schools together

Guri Rusten says that the Norwegian embassy in general is very positive to projects and activities that bring children and young people from different ethnicities together.

-Anything that brings groups together, which otherwise are separated, is good. The divisions between the people must be reduced, and the Norwegian embassy supports several projects that address reconciliation, she says.

-The Nansen Dialogue Centers work on bringing schools together, and there are many others who work for common curriculum and common schools. Reconciliation work is absolutely necessary and important, and must continue. The challenges in Bosnia-Herzegovina are not carved in stone, Rusten continues.

Meets headwind from elected representatives

The teacher Draginja Dada Topić has previously said on peace.no that there is less violence at her school in the town of Prijedor, after they have used the Nansen method (article in Norwegian).

The reconciliation work, however, meets the headwind of elected representatives who play on ethnic divisions. At the top political level there is a lot of ethnic rhetoric. There are political parties that are ethnically nationalists, and at the same time there are the multiethnic ones. The majority is ethnically nationalists, but the multiethnic ones are growing.

One hope for Tanja Milovanovic and others that are working for reconciliation in this challenging landscape, is that several media channels pay attention to events that are uniting the people.

-The happening at Mrakovica Mountain received good media attention, with interviews in both national and local TV stations, plus online newspapers, she says.

Samlingen på Mrakovica-fjellet er en feiring av det multietniske fellesskapet i Bosnia-Hercegovina.
The happening on the Mrakovica Mountain was organized for the ninth time, with 350 students and teachers participating.

The Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue (NCPD) has more than 20 years of experience in developing methodologies, and supporting dialogue projects in the Western Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kenya, Ukraina, Norway, Poland and other countries. NCPD provides capacity building on dialogue, with trainings, seminars and workshops on dialogue, and is located in Lillehammer, Norway. NCPD has inspired to the creation of several Nansen Dialogue Centers in countries in the Balkans, including Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Text: Kai Eldøy Nygaard
Published in English June 5th 2019

Filed Under: Ukategorisert

Contact Information

Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnsons gate 2
2609 Lillehammer
Norway
+47 612 55 500
post@peace.no

Search

Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue

Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue (NCPD) is a knowledge center and meeting point for dialogue and … Read more

Feedback

Feedback from the Intensive Dialogue Workshop for … Read more

Newsletter

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required



Newsletter

Email Format

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue:


You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use MailChimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to MailChimp for processing. Learn more about MailChimp’s privacy practices here.


Newsarchive

Donations

We're more than happy to accept donations to support our work both in Norway and abroad. There are several options available to sponsors. It is possible to offer donations to both separate projects and a more general contribution which will be applied according to need. Donors will be informed of how their gifts have been applied.

Please call us or send an email to discuss further options.

Recent Posts

  • The value of dialogue in the civil society sector
  • June: Advanced training in Dialogue facilitation
  • February: Online introductory training “Dialogue in Conflict”
  • Nansen training: Dialogue in Conflict, 29.11-03.12
  • Afghanistan must not be isolated – It is time for Dialogue and Diplomacy

Contact us

Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnsons gate 2,
2609 Lillehammer
Norway
+47 612 55 500
post@peace.no