The Balkan Regional Conference on Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding was held from 4th to 6th November in Igalo, Montenegro. It was organised by the Nansen Dialogue Network in the Balkans in cooperation with the Bulgarian School of Politics and Albanian Peace and Education Project.
This is one out of 15 regional conferences that are taking place within the Global Partnership for Prevention of Armed Conflict – GPPAC, formed on the initiative of the Secretary General, Kofi Annan.
After a substantial consultative process and eight national conferences in the region, this Conference gathered 140 participants delegated from the national conferences held in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro.
As a result of a three-day work, the participants formulated a Regional Action Plan, as a joint platform on conflict prevention and peacebuilding in the Balkans. The main goal of this process is to contribute to sustainable partnership between governments and civil society in civil society building where the mechanisms and processes for conflict prevention are institutionalised on local, national and regional level.
The Conference was based on the following key principles: Peaceful co-existence and non-violence, the Values embedded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Diversity and multiculturalism, Shift from crisis management to conflict prevention and peacebuilding, Sustainability, Accountability and transparency, Partnership for conflict prevention between governments, CSOs and INGOs, Reconciliation, Shift from national security toward human security and Dialogue.
The work in the Conference was organised in plenary sessions and working groups on the following topics: Peace education, Transitional processes and EU integration, Dealing with the past, Returnees and integration, Inter-ethnic dialogue and human rights, Minorities and human security, Peacebuilding through gender perspective / Women in peacebuilding, Role of religious communities in peacebuilding and Interaction between different actors (intergovernmental organisations, governments and NGOs).
This work resulted in recommendations and conclusions which will be distributed to the governmental representatives, international organisations, donors and media. The recommendations, as a part of Regional Action Plan, will be incorporated in the Global Action Plan, as a result of Global Conference on Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding to be held in July 2005 at the UN Headquarters in New York. Igalo, 8th November 2004 Conference Secretariat Nansen Dialogue Centre Montenegro.
