YIHR BiH: the Initiative in Mostar

12. 7. 2010. Activists of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina visited Mostar during 9-10 of July, as an activity within the project 'Citizen, that’s me', supported by the Civil Rights Defenders.

The following activists took active part in implementation of our activities: Adi Omerbegović, Melisa Karadža, Aleksandra Čvoro, Adis Hukanović, Vera Đokić, Ruba Velagić, Nedim Jahić, Amar Jaganjac and Emin Hajrić.

We presented our activities at Mostar University. This was an opportunity for young people to discuss about key issues tackled by the Initiative, and related to activism of citizens, primarily focusing on specific actions concerning key problems in Mostar, such as ethnic segregation. The discussions provided ideas for common actions and projects that will bring together young people from the entire city, regardless to religious or ethnic denomination.

Adis Hukanović – activist presented questionnaires that are part of the project. The questionnaires include questions related to understanding of activism, state and citizen. Upon full implementation of the project we expect final results of the survey, which will help us to get better overview of the situation.

Emin Hajrić (Film direction student) makes short documentaries as a part of the project. The documentaries are about our activities and include interviews with young people in local communities. We expect the first documentary (about Mostar activities) will be available online during the next week.

The street event was organised at Musala square. The activists disseminated fliers and talked about the local community problems, relations between the institutions and individuals, and human rights protection in general with the students from university and secondary schools.

Programme “The City” broadcasted by RTV Mostar drew attention onto the Project “Citizen, that’s me”. The guest of the programme was Nedim Jahić who presented the basic ideas for future activities of YIHR: individual human rights, development of critic opinion, anti discrimination, facing the past at general level in BiH, active role of citizen in relation to the governments.

Reaction of youth population in Mostar is satisfactory, so we believe that foundation for establishment of the activists’ team are laid and that young people from Mostar will take an active role in YIHR projects.

We would like to thank the Mostar University Students’ Gathering and RTV Mostar for the support, and we believe that our workshop will continue through organisation of human rights workshops planned for the autumn in the city on the Neretva River.