HELSINKI COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN SERBIA IN
2019
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Established in 1994, the Helsinki Committee for Human
Rights in Serbia began its mission at the time nationalism had not only
culminated in disastrous wars, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and genocide
in the territory of Yugoslavia, but also in massive human rights
violations in Serbia proper. Ever since and through hundreds of projects
the Committee has been trying to expose Serbia’s prevalent ideology –
nationalism – and, inasmuch as possible, alleviate its fatal effects on
the entire scope of human rights, the country’s economy, the rule of
law, regional and global relations and international standing, but,
above all, on younger generations and attitude towards modernity and
demands of the modern time, vs. deep-rooted patriarchalism, gender bias,
etc.
Refugees and minorities – ethnic, religious, political
– were the first targets of Serbian nationalism in action. The Committee
was the first NGO to stand up for thousands and thousands of refugees
who turned to the organization, and did all in its power to ensure their
civil rights and safe return to their hometowns. The organization was
also a pioneer among NGOs to monitor and report on the situation of
other vulnerable groups such as national minorities (exploring the
situation of some 30 minority communities), prisoners – especially
confined women victims of family abuse and inmates of reformatories -
psychiatric patients, institutionalized persons with disabilities,
children in the first place.
What also singles out the Committee are: publishing
wherein it ranges among the most productive NGO publishers (over 160
books so far, including comprehensive annual reports on the entire scope
of human rights exercise, and its once renowned magazine The Helsinki
Charter); ongoing education outreach programs for the young, including
regional schools of human rights, seeking to cope with nationalistic
prejudice and the culture of violence, and build the practically
non-existent culture of memory; regional reconciliation and cooperation,
mostly in partnership with like-minded NGOs and institutes from abroad;
and, regular bilingual e-zines, Helsinki Bulletins, dissecting ongoing
trends in Serbia and the region, and providing prognoses.
Presently, the Committee is mostly preoccupied with
revisionism (historical), regional normalization with focus on
Serbia-Kosovo relations, and the global phenomenon of radicalization and
violent extremism.
As of 2019 the Committee will be working on a
diversified three-year follow-up of its history project, the first part
and a break-the-ice project “YU-Historia: A Multi-Perspective historical
account, finalized in 2017 and now implemented under the title “Legacy
of Yugoslavia and the Future of the Region.” In tandem with over 50
authorities from all the countries emerging from Yugoslavia, the project
has thrown light on seven decades of a life together from all
perspectives: Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, Slovenian, Serbian,
Kosovo-Albanian and that of residents of Vojvodina. In brief, its
“tangible” products were two over 500-page volumes “Yugoslavia from a
Historical Perspective” (in English and in B/C/S) and a bilingual portal
offering by far more multi-perspective and topic-specific studies than
the book itself (available at
www.yuhistorija.com). Although some 10,200 people on average have
been visiting the portal on daily basis and edition in English has been
recommended to international scholars and stakeholders at the
www.academia.edu website as a fact-based, “temperate and sober”
dissection of too many controversial issues standing the way of regional
normalization, the Committee is fully aware that, all said and done, the
project has just touched the tip of the iceberg of one-sided, mostly
mythologized and truth-evasive narratives of mainstream historiographies
in the post-Yugoslav region on which younger generations are being
raised. This is why it now focuses younger intellectuals and university
students – answer-seeking generations with blurred knowledge of
Yugoslavia or no knowledge at all: national educational systems have not
equipped them with factual explanations of Yugoslavia’s historical
emergence and reasons behind its disintegration, given that “new”
policy-makers are doing their best to distance their countries from the
Second Yugoslavia and distort its realities, while picturing the First,
at their own discretion, in extremes. Among other things, it includes
summer schools (master classes), debates at all ex-Yugoslav university
centers and yet another two volumes of the history of Yugoslavia, plus
the portal.
The Committee has begun working on Serbia-Kosovo
dialogue even before the breakout of the 1999 war, and was the first NGO
to organize a conference that assembled intellectuals from both sides.
Such activism was resumed after the ouster of Milosevic in 2000, and
intensified since Kosovo’s independence declaration. For instance, the
Committee was campaigning for Kosovo Serbs’ participation in the first
local elections in Kosovo, visited tens and tens of Serb-populated
communities and enclaves, and encouraging ethnic Serbs to take the reins
of their future in their hands – an act preconditioned by their
socioeconomic integration into Kosovo society rather than by official
Belgrade’s political games, diplomatic manipulation and lip service.
Presently, the organization has been working along two strategic lines:
touring Kosovo, organizing meetings, interviewing Kosovo Serbs and
Kosovo Albanians, and publishing relevant reports with recommendations,
the recent one being titled “Kosovo Serbs: A Frozen Life in A Frozen
Conflict;” continuing along the lines of its first “Kosovo-Serbia
Cultural Ice-Breakers” project that brings together – in Kosovo and
Serbia alike – young intellectuals and artists (painters, filmmakers,
musicians, etc.) from both sides in joint performances, exhibitions,
etc.
Leaning on its longstanding experience in Sandzak –
Serbia’s region that remained among the most underdeveloped and
economically devastated areas, the Muslim/Bosniak-majority community
burdened by painful experience of ethnically motivated violence of the
1990s – the Committee is now implementing activities against all forms
of radicalization and extremism that focus on the Sandzak youth and
their educators and families; the former - that make the highest
percentage of the unemployed, have been raised in a generally
conservative and gender-biased environments and are under strong
influence of their families, family friends and close neighborhoods;
this, plus the legacy of the ‘90s created the room to radical groups to
recruit both Muslim and Orthodox youth for foreign battlegrounds.
Generally speaking, the project seeks to sensitize the local community
about radicalization leading to violent extremism, strengthen youth
self-confidence and critical thinking, and harness their creative energy
for value-based promotion of ethnic and religious tolerance, and empower
parents and educators in three municipalities of the region to
understand and cope with the phenomenon of youth radicalization,
recognize its drivers and early signs, and provide proper response
through holistic and pragmatic multi-sectorial approaches.
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