The Second Regional Youth Peace Conference was held in the conference room of the Municipality of Srebrenica today. The conference titled “Peace work in youth policy” was supported by the European Union and organised by CARE International and youth organisations from Bratunac, Srebrenica and Vlasenica.

A large number of youth leaders from throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina took part, along with Natalia Dianiskova, Head of the EU Delegation’s Section for Social Development, Civil Society and Cross-Border Cooperation, and Ćamil Duraković, Deputy Mayor of Srebrenica.

“The European Union and its citizens consider the development of this area to be extremely important,” Ms Dianiskova said during the conference. “The EU is a donor in many projects in the region, but I have to say that we are a particularly proud donor in this project. This is the final year of the project, and that’s why we can talk about achievements and finalize the goals we set at the beginning.”

Ms Dianiskova noted that the results of the project may have a useful bearing on future projects supported by the European Union.

Ćamil Duraković, Deputy Mayor of Srebrenica expressed his gratitude to CARE International, European Union and Hungarian Embassy: “I also want to thank all those who have contributed to this project in any way, helping young activists to create conditions for lasting peace-building and multi-ethnic tolerance in our region,” said Deputy Mayor Duraković. “We have given our full support to this project so that the position of activists who worked hard will become stronger.” He added that the municipal authorities in Srebrenica are committed to supporting youth peace activism in the future.

Young people who took part in the project said one of their goals was to have peace activism incorporated in the Youth Strategy of municipalities in the area. The ultimate goal, they said, is to empower local youth activists so that they can continue to promote peace-building.

More information available at: http://www.carenwb.org/