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Description
The project Policies of local peace-building responds to the challenges posed to our society by the environmental and political crisis, in which there is an inability to improve the protection of human rights and endanger the acquired levels of protection. First of all, the crisis has those who have the least social, economic and political power - such as refugees, the poor and the rural population. In this project we recognize non-violent and peaceful action as one of the possible answers to the threat of human rights and develop an approach to capacity decision-makers at the level of local self-governments for the non-violent and peaceful resolution of acute and chronic problems of their communities. To achieve this, we will define the curriculum of basic and advanced training for non-violence policies. These trainings will bring together participants in decision-making processes at the level of local self-government, who will, after training in four local communities, conduct dialog forums - a method of peaceful resolution of political conflicts, and all trainees will receive continuous support through the mentoring lab during the project. The educational content of the project will be verified through the evaluation process, and the research on non-violent and peaceful conflict resolution will also be carried out, including both political and civil society actors.
Summary of project results
Locally, nationally and globally people face very similar problems. On the one hand, it is a threat to democracy and human rights by authoritarian and populist political actors, whose actions lead to the growth of nationalism, militarism, xenophobia and other discriminatory practices. On the other hand, a global climate disaster that we are facing, is forcing people to make social adjustments. At the same time, a vicious circle is formed in which authoritarian and populist political actors use the opportunity to take a social position in situations where the social response to crises is articulated. The specificity of Croatia is also the war heritage of the 1990s, which is often used to legitimize exclusive nationalist and militaristic values. On the other hand, the values of peace work and non-violent action are completely denied and silenced - regardless of whether it is the anti-war activity of civil society or institutional peacemaking, as in the example of the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube region. This is followed by historical negationism, i.e. the rehabilitation of the so-called NDH as positive phenomena. The treatment of refugees who come to Croatia''s borders from parts of the world affected by war and environmental disasters condenses all the aforementioned trends. In the treatment of refugees in the public discourse, there is a visible dehumanization through the forcing of xenophobic stereotypes belonging to the theory of "clash of civilizations". In local communities within the border zones of Croatia and refugee routes, xenophobic agitators who call for violence are operating unhindered. At the same time, state institutions participate in illegal expulsion and denial of the right to asylum. But what is most worrying - and can be seen as the example of the absence of political and criminal legal proceedings after the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the Hussiny case - is that the action described has no any consequences, either for the instigators, facilitators or executors. In such a problematic context, there is a great need for an alternative (from the aspect of values and from the aspect of practical social action) in the form of training for non-violent and peaceful social action.
Through the project, democratic culture, civic awareness and civic engagement were strengthened through the inclusion of 14 persons belonging to vulnerable groups (women, members of national minorities) in basic and advanced training, and through the implementation of dialogue forum activities.
The project systematically provided support to vulnerable groups and empowered them through the development of a curriculum for basic non-violence policy training, a curriculum for deepening training, and through the development, description and implementation of dialogue forums as an innovative method. In accordance with the implementation plan, the capacities for peaceful and non-violent action in Croatia were improved through the improvement of the competencies of 24 locally active politicians with the knowledge and skills of non-violent conflict transformation, dialogue and affirmation of the cooperative versus competitive paradigm of community work through two basic and one in-depth training. Special attention was made to gender parity (11 women), the inclusion of politicians from all political options (invitations and information were sent to all political options at the national and local levels) and the inclusion of representatives of national minorities (Czech, Serbian, Ukrainian, Roma). From the evaluation questionnaires filled out by the participants of the training, they were very satisfied with the education, which was interesting and useful for them, and that they are motivated to organize the Dialogue Forums (DF) and continue with the effort to change the paradigm of their work in the community. Five participants organized and co-led DF in their communities, where 11 online mentoring meetings were organized.
Mobilization and engagement of citizens and international human rights standards were promoted through the inclusion of over 40 people in dialogue forums organized by the training participants. One dialogue forum also dealt with the protection of children''s rights because the topic was violence in the classroom, and it ended with empowered parents with a clear decision on how and what to do next, while acting non-violently.
"Local community research, (non)violence and social belonging" was carried out in accordance with the plan. A short report regarding results of the research was published on the partners'' websites. The scientific article "Potentials of peacemaking for the development of the local community: a review of the project "Politics of local peacemaking in Croatia"" was submitted to the international peer-reviewed scientific journal “New Presence”. The local peacemaking policy program, tested through this project, was verified by the evaluation process but also by research in which local practices, values and problems were put into a global and theoretical perspective, and were given the green light as a significant potential for the development of the local community through the strengthening of civil friendship. The two organizations are, for now, using the evaluation and research results to support their advocacy and work on local policies, and once the independent international reviews arrive, the research results will be freely available to all interested parties.
Capacity building of the Institution and RAND was planned through the creation of a strategy for the sustainability of the non-violence policy program. An external expert carried out the preparations and created the Financial Sustainability Strategy. The Ministry of Science and Education expressed interest and willingness to support the program for Nonviolent Conflict Transformation for teachers. The capacities of the organization were also strengthened through the learning that was made possible by the evaluation activities of educational and research work.
We designed and tested an innovative educational program and method of dialogue forums, which proved to be very successful and well received by the target groups we empowered for this purpose.
A new paradigm for solving political conflicts is beginning to be accepted and gradually introduced, and the usual hate speech has been replaced by dialogue at the local level.
The work with the target group was doubly verified, by research on non-violence policies that placed our local practice and values in a global and theoretical perspective (civic friendship). Another form of verification is an independent evaluation of educational and research activity, which received suggestions for improvements and especially for the development of new activities. As a result, local political actors in several communities (Osijek, Zagreb, Zadar, Darda, Vukovar) were informed, some of them empowered and trained for non-violent and sustainable peaceful dialogue towards the non-violent transformation of local political conflicts, which can be seen from several demonstrations (five dialogue forums held).
In addition to knowledge and skills, the target group is strengthened by mentoring and an agreement on the long-term continuation of mentoring and the cooperation of trainers/mentors on the organization of future dialogue forums that can be implemented even without project funding. The local communities of Osijek and its surroundings, Zagreb and its surroundings, and Vukovar have been given a concrete, visible place where interested parties can contact for concrete help in opening a dialogue in their community. A description of the skills and methods of the dialogue forum are available on the web and can be used freely, as well as the rich publication Čitanka: Nonviolence - a utopia or opportunity that provides "methodologically well-founded, instructions for nonviolent action" that grows from personal to social action (politics of nonviolence ), and in addition to the theoretical basics, it also offers examples of good practice.