transeuropeenees: 50 women for peace and civility in th Balkans

[anna balint]

Press release 
                                                  
50 women for peace and civility in the Balkans

During two weeks, a caravan of 50 women activists from Albania,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia & Montenegro, and
Slovenia will complete a 2,500 km long journey across the borders.
>From May 26th to June 10th 2002, at Transeuropéennes' initiative, fifty
women activists from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo,
Macedonia, Serbia & Montenegro, and Slovenia (human rights activists,
feminists, artists, journalists, etc.) will cross together in a bus the
borders of this Balkan region, to go to symbolic places of its recent past,
to discover the realities of the other, and to publicly discuss the
experience after their return from the caravan.
Their action is accompanied by a photo exhibition of the portraits of these
women activists, which travels through the capitals of the countries of the
former Yugoslavia and Albania.
Gathered by Transeuropéennes, these women expressed their share common
values during two conferences, in Royaumont (near Paris) in 1999 and in
Mavrovo (Macedonia) in 2000. Known for their action in favour of peace,
democratisation, human rights and women's empowerment, they decided to
undertake cross-border actions, symbolised by this caravan.
The objective is to assert their commitment in favour of peace, to increase
their visibility as political subjects, while breaking down barriers with
regard to women's political action.
These women activists chose to go to symbolic places : destroyed cities
(Vukovar), divided cities (Kosovska Mitrovica), cities governed by blood
feud (Shkodra), sites of massacres (Srebrenica), cities where civic action
and a spirit of civility made it possible to thwart mechanisms of hatred
and regimes of repression (Kraljevo), places of return for refugees (Knin),
cities displaying pacific cohabitation (Tuzla) or inter-communities
tensions (Tetovo).
Together, they will experience the old and new borders, imposed by war or
emerging from the enlargement of the European Union, and still other
borders, invisible and impalpable, that split communities, marking out
closed-off territories within cities. Together, they will meet, at each
stop along the way, local NGO representatives, journalists, teachers, local
elected officials and representatives from the European Union and
international organisations.
These women activists participate as individuals, with the support of local
partners for organisation, dissemination and interaction: the Albanian
Human Rights Group (Tirana), the Center for Cultural Decontamination
(Belgrade), the Humanitarian Law Center (Belgrade / Prishtina / Podgorica /
Novi Sad), Kosova Action for Civic Initiatives (Prishtina), the Foundation
Open Society Institute - Macedonia (Skopje), Stope Nade (Split), Žene
Ženama (Sarajevo).
Itinerary and agenda :
May 26th : Vukovar (Croatia)
May 27th : Tuzla (Bosnia-Herzegovina)
May 28th : Srebrenica (Bosnia-Herzegovina)
May 29th : Kraljevo (Serbia)
May 30th : Kumanovo / Lipkovo (Macedonia)
May 31st : Skopje and Tetovo (Macedonia)
June 1st : Kamenica (Kosovo)
June 2nd : Gracanica and Kosovska Mitrovica (Kosovo)
June 3rd : Novi Pazar (Serbia)
June 4th : travel day     
June 5th : Shkodra (Albania)
June 6th and 7th : Mostar (Bosnia-Herzegovina)
June 8th : Knin (Croatia)
June 9th : Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Contacts :
Project manager : Ghislaine Glasson Deschaumes
Project coordinator : Amélie Eble
Transeuropéennes - 51, rue de Maubeuge, F-75009 Paris
Phone : 0+ 33 (0)1 55 07 88 90
Fax : + 33 (0)1 55 07 97 38
transeuropeennes at wanadoo.fr
www.transeuropeennes.org
Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT


To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
pastforward-unsubscribe at egroups.com
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
Click a  to send an instant message to an online friend
           
 = Online,  = Offline