The legacy of the targeted attacks against civilians and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) during the civil war in the 1990s continues to hinder attempts to bring about sustainable peace. Although the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement successfully ended direct hostilities between the adversaries, reconciliation has not followed. Rather, the peace agreement reinforced the conflicting views of those on all sides of the war.
Considering this context, launched in January 2024, AIPG's Education for Democracy project seeks to work with local stakeholders to devise educational strategies that can provide young people in BiH with knowledge, values, and skills to combat hate speech and discriminatory behaviors while learning to value the plurality of ideas that exist in BiH today as a basis to promote democratic coexistence.
The project is based on AIPG's assumption that one of the fundamental pillars of a functioning democracy is its education system. By strengthening the capacity of teachers to create spaces for constructive dialogue based on respect and recognition of diversity in public secondary schools, we will pursue the longer-term goals of preventing the rise of prejudice, intolerance, and discrimination and promoting a culture of respect for human rights and democratic values among young Bosnians.
The Education for Democracy initiative replicates the participatory method developed and utilized by AIPG in its highly successful Brazilian program, “Citizenship and Democracy in Schools" based on a preventive aim and applying a locally driven approach. Alongside its longtime partner, the Center for Peacebuilding (CIM), AIPG will conduct a two-year pilot initiative, working with local stakeholders to develop, implement, and evaluate an educational intervention targeting students in Sanski Most, BiH.
In January 2025, the project achieved a significant milestone by hosting a transformative training week for teachers and pedagogues from the local primary schools of Sanski Most. The agenda combined theoretical discussions with hands-on workshops on creating inclusive spaces, utilizing dialogue as a conflict-resolution tool, and exploring topics related to democracy and human rights. The training was based on a pedagogical framework tailored to BiH's unique social context, developed through consultations held in 2024 with educators, students, civil society representatives, and government officials. A comprehensive booklet, offering practical activities and resources to support classroom implementation, was provided to certified educators who will pilot the program in six of Sanski Most’s seven primary schools throughout 2025.
The Education for Democracy project is supported by the Swedish Postcode Lottery Foundation.
