Where is pizza coming from? Who brought potato to BiH? Did you know that the Count Dracula was a real historical person? We discussed these and many other issues with the pupils of fifth and seventh grade of Primary School „Cirilo and Metodije“ from Trnopolje within the class „Let's learn about national minorities“, which was organised by the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Banja Luka and the Republic Srpska Alliance of National Minorities.

„We tried to illustrate to the pupils of 5th and 7th grade the importance of co-living with national minorities, because such a cohesion can only enrich our lives, enable us to learn from each other, and expand our views, which ultimately leads to a greater tolerance, understanding and mutual respect“ stated Maja Kremenovic, Assistant on the project „Neighbourhood – Affirmation of Multiculturalism and Co-Operation on Municipal Level in the Countries of Western Balkans“.

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Further you may find the text of protest letter forwarded to the addresses of abovementioned international officials:

P R O T E S T

Being concerned with the progress of Butmir talks so far, and recalling that true democracy cannot exist without equal participation of women, Udruzene Zene and Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, together with the participants at the round table which resulted in the forming of the Regional Women’s’ Network in Banja Luka on 23rd October, we request that the international representatives and local leaders include women in the continuation of talks on constitutional changes in BiH.

Women were excluded from all negotiating teams which have been deciding about the BiH destiny, starting from the time of the Dayton Peace Agreement signing onwards. Butmir talks are no exception to this, while the results of these talks will have an impact on all BiH male and female citizens equally.

Participants at the round table held in Banja Luka who arrived from BiH, Croatia, Serbia Montenegro and Macedonia, are surprised with the behaviour of Butmir talks' initiators, especially Carl Bildt, Foreign Minister of Sweden, the country which is currently presiding over the EU. The EU countries are obliged to show appreciation towards the gender balance, pursuant to resolutions, declarations, rule books and road maps, when adopting any decision on the EU level. Contrary to the expectations of the BiH women, but also of the women from the region, Butmir talks initiators ignored all above mentioned, and proceeded with the practice of ignoring and excluding women, although they were in position to decide about who was to sit at the negotiating table.

This has only encouraged local politicians to pursue with the practice of women discrimination, violation of domestic legal regulations, first of all BiH Law on Gender Equality, and to ignore obligations that were taken over by the signing of the international and regional relevant contracts.

Negotiating table should host women as well who could give a different contribution to the talks and direct them towards the needs and interests of ordinary citizens of this country, who cannot live on the “principle of constitutionality”.

Thus, we request that the international representatives take this our protest into consideration and prevent that the destiny of BiH male and female citizens be decided upon only by men!

26 October 2009

At the Round table „From local to global dialogue with EU“, held from 21st to 23rd October in Banja Luka, participants agreed about forming Regional Women’s Network which is to gather women’s organizations from BiH, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Macedonia, as well as organizations from other countries who are interested in launching joint initiatives towards authorities and in promoting the culture of reconciliation and non-violence, but also the policy and practice of gender equality.

It was also agreed that one of the first joint actions of the Regional Women’s Network was to send a protest letter to international officials, initiators of Butmir talks on constitutional changes in BiH, as a reaction to women’s exclusion from the negotiating process.

The goal of the round table, gathering around 30 representatives of women’s non- governmental organizations from the region was to review former manners of co-operation between women’s group, both on local and on regional level. This led to conclusion that coalitions or networks provide for bigger legitimacy and allow for more effective influence on governmental institutions.

V. D.

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21 October 2009

Bureau for Human Rights Tuzla and Helsinki Citizens Assembly Banja Luka organized a round table titled “European Social Charter in Our Legislative“, at which we presented the analysis of entity laws and the level of their harmonization with the European Social Charter.

Aleksandra Petric, the introductory speaker and the author of the analysis of the RS laws pointed out that the analysis showed that the RS laws have been harmonized with the European Social Charter to a large degree in theory, however the situation in practice is quite different.

hCa announced the initiative for making changes and amendments to the Family Law of RS together with Nada Grahovac, the Ombudsman for Children’s Rights of RS, which presented the Family Law of RS.

The participants were representatives of different state institutions and NGOs that fully supported this initiative. The conclusion of the round table was that this analysis has clearly indicated that our laws are good, but their implementation is rather bad.

T.S.