The Center for Peacebuilding from Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Center for Peacebuilding from Bosnia and Herzegovina

TransConflict is pleased to present the profile of the Center for Peacebuilding from Bosnia and Herzegovina, a member of the Global Coalition for Conflict Transformation.

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Contact Information

Areas of Expertise

The Center for Peacebuilding has expertise in a range of areas, including:

Main Aims and Objectives

The Center for Peacebuilding (CIM) is a non-governmental organization – located in Sanski Most, Bosnia and Herzegovina – that seeks to rebuild trust and foster reconciliation among the people of Bosnia – Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks, and others – as well as support peace processes in other countries that have suffered from violent conflict. CIM provides a safe place in a highly segregated society for constructive inter-ethnic and religious dialogue. CIM’s activities promote human rights, aid inter-cultural exchange, and equip individuals with practical skills to respond creatively to conflict to nonviolently transform potentially violent situations.

Upholding the Principles of Conflict Transformation

The Center for Peacebuilding works at a local, national, and international level to promote sustainable conflict transformation and peacebuilding. CIM’s holistic approach addresses conflict and trauma in both individuals and larger groups. The core of CIM’s work is to (re)build relationships that were destroyed during the neighbor-on-neighbor violence of the war. First, CIM aims to bring together individuals and communities from different ethnic and identity groups so that they can rehumanize “the other” and debunk historic myths and prejudice. Over time CIM works to build trust and train people as leaders in conflict resolution. In this way, CIM promote individuals to become agents of change and seeds of peace in themselves, their personal relationships, and their own community. Step-by-step, person-by-person, and community-by-community CIM transform traumas into sustainable peace.

Where and with Whom

CIM’s work engages people at a local, national, and international level. In the community, CIM works with local youth through a volunteer club and with teachers through nonviolent communication and conflict resolution training. The broader Sanski Most community has been exposed to CIM’s mission through activities such as inter-religious public dialogue and cultural events sponsored by the town’s mayor and local government. Furthermore, within Sanski Most, CIM collaborates with other organizations working toward healing and peace such as the Krajina Tear Women’s organization, local Concentration Camp survivor organizations, and Veteran’s associations. CIM’s peace camp brings Bosnians from all ethnicities and areas of the country together, and has also hosted participants from the United States, Israel, Palestine, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and France. CIM has helped to found a peacebuilding organization in Nepal, and CIM’s directors annually attend peacebuilding trainings and seminars in the United States and Switzerland.

Main Activities in the Field of Conflict Transformation

In order to promote healing, reconciliation, and peacebuilding for Bosnia’s future, CIM’s activities center around creating a safe environment of mutual listening, understanding, and compassion through (re)building relationships within Bosnia’s highly-segregated society.CIM’s activities include:

  • Annual Peace Camps in which weeklong retreats bring together individuals from different ethnic backgrounds to meet and discuss taboo topics related to conflict in BiH. Participants have the rare opportunity to discuss the history of war and ethnically based prejudice in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), while learning skills in nonviolent conflict resolution.
  • Trauma Healing with Cranio-Sacral Therapy with CIM therapists to help patients relieve traumatic stress and its psychological and physical side effects.
  • Inter-religious Dialogue. In March 2010 CIM began organizing meetings between Sanski Most’s various religious leaders. On March 20, 2010, for the first time in the city’s history, these leaders (representing the Islamic, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant faiths) met public to present resources for peacebuiding in their respective religious traditions. Since then, CIM has organized regular dialogues for the people of Sanksi Most.
  • International Delegations. Over the course of CIM’s existence, it has hosted various international delegations who come to learn about the roots of conflict in the Balkans, the break up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s and the current challenges in promoting justice, human rights and post conflict reconstruction and reconciliation. These groups include United State’s based NGO, Global Youth Connect, and study abroad groups from the School for International Training.
  • Local Volunteer Club, which has nearly fifty members from Sanski Most, promotes volunteerism and local buy-in in issues of conflict resolution. Volunteers assist in grant writing, organizing the Annual Peace week, as well as gain training in nonviolent communication and conflict resolution skills.
  • Annual Peace Week has the task to offer the community of Sanski Most interesting lectures on various subjects, leisure activities, common prayer, friendship and promotion of the city, and all this is a endeavor for CIM to create an appropriate environment for coexistence and tolerance. Citizens of Sanski Most had the opportunity to enjoy in listening to the lectures of domestic peacekeepers, and CIM’s long-time friend Amra Pandžo from Sarajevo and other guest teacher from Switzerland, Germany and the U.S.A.

What are the principles of conflict transformation?

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