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 project replicates the participatory method developed and utilized by AIPG in its highly successful Brazilian project, “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. 

The Education for Democracy project is supported by the Swedish Postcode Lottery Foundation.

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