The Board of Directors of the Regional Women’s Lobby for Peace, Security and Justice in Southeast Europe, at the strategic meeting in Tirana (March 1-3), dedicated special attention to further improvement of its structure and functioning, and to formulate common positions on the key events and developments in the region.
Maja Šarkanović-Volk, an independent consultant to the US Government on media relations and Balkan affairs, writes for TransConflict that the speeding-up of integration of the Western Balkans into the EU will require the creation of new momentum through greater financial investment and the deployment of individuals with significant political and diplomatic clout.
Shortly before Christmas and the end of 2009, three key decisions were made regarding the European perspective of the Western Balkans: the EU abandoned the visa requirements for citizens of Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro; Serbia applied for EU membership; and the European Court of Human Rights found the Bosnian constitution to be in breach of the European Convention of HR.
The Group for Monitoring of Process against Six Anarchists strongly condemned the physical violence that the anarchists accused for terrorism suffer in the prolonged detention, after Tadej Kurepa (25), one of the six, was mistreated and blackmailed by his cell-mates in the Belgrade Central Prison Unit.
The Mediacentar Sarajevo organizes a public debate on the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to condemn the discriminatory provisions in the BiH Constitution regarding the right of citizens that don’t come from the three constitutional peoples to run in elections for BiH Presidency and the House of Peoples in the State Parliament.
The Youth Initiative for Human Rights Croatia (YIHR) believes that the Declaration of Support to Croatian People in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the process of Constitutional Changes, proposed for adoption in the Croatian Sabor (the Parliament) is a clear case of meddling in constitutional affairs of a neighbouring country and supports the process of division of BiH citizens.
Ivo JosipovićIvo Josipović, university professor, composer and MP won the Presidential Elections in Croatia in a land-slide, with 60.29 percent of the votes. His opponent, the Mayor of Zagreb Milan Bandić won 39.71 percent of the votes.
