Peacebuilding and the Refugee Crisis: Reflections from the Western Balkans

Monday 7 December 2015 (09.30-11:00)

Quaker House, Square Ambiorix 50, 1000 Brussels

We welcome you to an opportunity to discuss the lessons learned and the current state of peacebuilding in the Western Balkans, and how this has been affected by the refugee crisis.

  • Have the root causes of the post-Yugoslav wars been dealt with?

  • How does the refugee crisis influence regional stability?

  • How is the EU’s approach to the refugee crisis perceived in the Western Balkans?

Grassroots peacebuilders will present perspectives from Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina. This will be followed by a roundtable discussion.

Participants

The opening speakers will provide expert analysis of the current peacebuilding challenges in the region. Goran Bozicevic is Director of the Miramida Centar – Regional Peacebuilding Exchange. He has been active since 1993 teaching Peace Studies, working with war veterans and is currently completing research on reconciliation initiatives in Croatia for UNDP.

Zorica Trifunovic is co-founder of several NGOs, including the Centre for Anti-war Action, Women in Black – Serbia, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia. Active in peace-building since 1990, she has worked for STAR Network, Quaker Peace and Social Witness and CARE International.

Goran Bubalo founded the Network for Building Peace, a coalition of 90 peace NGOs. He has spent twenty years working on civil society development, citizens empowerment and peace building in Post-Yugoslav region.

As part of wide ranging peacebuilding careers in their countries and regionally, each have served as Quaker Peace representatives and worked together on Dealing with Past Programme 2004-2009.

Coffee, orange juice and croissant will be available from 09:00.

To register please email events@qcea.org