SHORT VERSION:

• The „Balkan Youth for Tolerance“ is a project aiming at raising youth awareness for human rights in general and the minority rights more specifically on the Balkans.

• 28 participants from 7 target countries:

- will discuss minority topics in two (startup and extending) seminars (Romania, Bulgaria)
- will travel by bus through the Balkans!
(Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Romania)
- will visit different institutions, media centers and experts dealing with minority rights in the countries involved
- having workshops with different minority groups in the villages
- will write a Bus Diary of their experiences and publish it daily on the internet
- will make a short documentary video film about the programme
- will participate in an online discussion forum on minority topics

LONG VERSION:

The theme of this programme will focus on one of the most discussed but fruitless topics on the Balkans: The situation of “ethnic, religious and national” minorities on the Balkans. Minority rights discussions seem to be one of the dominant characteristics of contemporary political life on the Balkans. Most minorities today enjoy more rights than ever before. Some, unknown a generation ago, have won international recognition. Others have ceased to be minorities as they were able to secede and form their own states. At the same time, though, Europe have witnessed a series of devastating and atrocious wars e.i. in former Yugoslavia. They were, in a way, about minority rights. Territorially concentrated minorities have been trying to fight their way to independence from oppressive nation-states. The international community’s reaction oscillated between persistent underreaction (like in Bosnia and Hercegovina) and belated overreaction (like in Kosovo).

But while talking about minorities in the Balkans it is a certain need to talk also about majorities in at least three reasons: 1) most minorities have majority communities of the same ethnic background in neighbouring countries. 2) After the fall of the Ottoman Empire some ethnic groups that were minorities became a basis for the on-going nation-state formation processes that, especially after the recent disintegration of Yugoslavia, intensified anew. 3) It is a rule in the Balkans that the attitudes of majorities define not only the main parameters of the minority situations but in many cases play a decisive role in the processes of the change and consolidation of identities. (Krassimir Kanev – president of the Helsinki Committee in Bulgaria)

Balkans are a small territory where for ages coexisted big communities of Orthodox, Catholics, Muslims, Protestants and Jews. They spoke languages that were and continue to be completely incomprehensible to each other. Shortly before the Second World War five alphabets were in a relatively wide use – Cyrillic, Latin, Greek, Arabic and Hebrew. On this background, when in the 19th and 20th century the Balkan people, following the European model, decided to form nation states, the result was predictable. All known methods of solving the "national question" were used repeatedly: genocide, ethnic cleansing, exchange of population, expulsions, forced changes of names and faith. These practices, in different combinations were used against members of every Balkan ethnic community, including those that did not have their own "mother country". All Balkan countries at different times were recipients of big refugee masses which, on its own turn, radicalised societies and politics.

Yet young people – no matter to which minority or majority belong – are growing up burdened with the mistakes and prejudices of the past while facing a huge challenge and responsibility to find ways out of this political and social disaster in this region. Even though currently a kind of “silence” is ruling over the Balkans - which is one of the effects of the international “intervention” in the region - the question of the minority rights is still ticking like a time bomb and can explode anytime and anywhere. While using this “silence” this project aims to raise youth awareness and respect on human rights in general and minority rights in particular.

Therefore it is necessary to divide the topic into three parts:

• Definitions of minorities
- Which minorities exist?
- What are the differences between the several kind of minorities?
- Which minority groups are existing on the Balkans and what are their origins?
- The cultural dimension: Is there a ‘clash’ of cultures?

• Minority rights on the Balkans
- Actual legal status of minorities in each country
- Minority-Related national legislation
- Can minorities resist to the conditions imposed by the legacy of authoritarian nation-states and articulate their rights as political rather than as ethno-national rights?
- How can minorities struggle for their rights using the means of a democratic republic, that is constitutional guarantees for the exercise of fundamental human rights as well as a public sphere where the extension and recognition of new rights can be debated?

• The EU dimension of minority rights protection
- EU co-operation for better protection of the rights of minorities
- Legal enforcement for the protection of the minority rights.
- laws and institution existing to protect minorities rights

Structure of the programme:
Working methods:
1. Presentation- Discussion panels
2. Work in small groups
3. Learning through experience
4. Learning through direct exchange

Theoretical part:

- 2day Startup-Seminar in Sofia:
Here the participants will analyse issues of minority rights protection both at the national and supranational level. While presenting the specific character and institutional framework of minority rights protection in their own countries, the participants will have the chance to work out commonalties and differences. The examination of the relevant international documents and practices will point out the international framework and the available guarantees of human rights and minority rights. Within this discussion, a special attention will be paid to the binding character of the existing international arrangements on minority rights, their applicability and enforcement in the respective countries. This analysis will indicate diverse approaches to minority rights in the respective countries and consequently their difficulties to reach a consensus on the uniformity and coherence in the content of minority rights obligations as well as on the binding character at an international level.

- 2day extending seminar in Cluj-Napoca
After having travel through Bulgaria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia and Romania, meeting and discussing with different officials and representatives of NGO’s dealing with the Minority issue in this countries, visiting villages and enclaves of Minorities, the participants will stop in Cluj-Napoca to join an extending seminar together with a small number of Romanian/Hungarian and Roma students from Babes-Bolyai University. Here they will continue to analyse and will have the opportunity to reflect their opinion critically based on the experiences of the last days.

- lectures and discussions focusing on the theoretical and practical relevance of the minority rights in the region. This will be hold by scholars of political science and law, politicians, journalists and other prominent representatives of the public life as well as by representatives of NGO’s and regional/international institutions.

Practical part:

- Meeting and discussions with ordinary people from minority groups
As part of the preparatory activities we will contact organisations and persons belonging to a minority group or working in the field of minority rights and geographically placed on the route of the Caravan with the purpose of arranging meetings between them and the participants. During the implementation of the project as many meetings should take place as possible.

- Direct involvement of the press
=> press conferences will be organised in each major city, both the local and national press will be invited
=> by taking part in a youth radio program in every country. The project foresees a particular topic for each of the radio programs. The „host“ participants will be encouraged to choose an issue of common interest, addressing questions of youth participation, current policy problems, and ultimately building strategies to encourage young people to be more vocal. Rather than accentuate the perceived differences among ethnic groups, the project will focus on highlighting the common bonds that unite youth in general. All participants will be expected to freely express their opinions and share their experience organising interviews and discussions relating to the topic.

- Filming will occur throughout the excursion and an actual documentary will be produced in the months following the project. We will also conduct a „before and after interview“, aiming to register any possible change that has transpired in participants throughout the process

- online itinerary:
by preparing and publishing an online itinerary which gives information about the actual situation in each country, private experiences of the participants... this will ensure that more interested people can join the program virtually and be a part of the program.