pcrc annual report 2014-2015

Annual Report2014-2015

Table of Contents

Introduction by PCRC Executive Director Velma Šarić 3PCRC Projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina 4Activities Abroad, Mapped 10Regional Impact and Cooperation 12Genocide Prevention Workshops 16Warriors of Peace 17Balkan Diskurs 18Global Broadcasting 19Photos from “One Million Bones: Road to Srebrenica” 20Council of Europe Diversity Advantage Challenge 22Enhancing Our Network 24Student Programs 27Our Donors 29Our Team 30Our Interns 31

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Post-Conflict Research Center

A ceramic bone lays amongst others on the ground at the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Complex in Bosnia as part of our July 2015 project “One Million Bones: Road to Srebrenica” (Photo: Armin Durgut, Zenica)

Table of Contents

Introduction by PCRC Executive Director Velma Šarić 3PCRC Projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina 4Activities Abroad, Mapped 10Regional Impact and Cooperation 12Genocide Prevention Workshops 16Warriors of Peace 17Balkan Diskurs 18Global Broadcasting 19Photos from “One Million Bones: Road to Srebrenica” 20Council of Europe Diversity Advantage Challenge 22Enhancing Our Network 24Student Programs 27Our Donors 29Our Team 30Our Interns 31

Dear Friends,

Almost five years after its formation, and a year on from winning the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and the BMW Group’s Intercultural Innovation Award, 2015 saw the Post-Conflict Research Center continue to cement its status as one of the leading peacebuilding NGOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Building on the foundations of 2014, we again achieved international notoriety as our flagship project Ordi-nary Heroes finished in the top five of the Council of Europe’s Diversity Challenge Award. This success not only helped us find new funders, but also form new partnerships across Europe and find new paths towards our mission of cultivating an environment for sustainable peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In July, tens of thousands of mourners and the world’s media descended on the small town of Srebrenica for the 20th commemoration of the genocide. The Post-Conflict Research Center played its own part, laying 100,000 ceramic bones and running a unique four-day genocide prevention program with 100 young people drawn from across Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Western Balkans and the world.

And in August, our media freedom project Balkan Diskurs celebrated its first birthday. Dedicated to providing young citizen journalists, activists and academics in the Western Balkans with a space free from censorship to share their concerns and ideas, the project’s success has led to the development of an exciting plan for expansion in 2016. Watch this space!

This report showcases just some of the highlights from the past year, but most importantly, its contents also pay tribute to the hard work of our staff and our interns that lie behind each of these achievements.

Indeed, I feel incredibly lucky to have the chance to work with so many young, talented individuals, each driv-en by an unshakeable motivation to work for peace and justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina and further afield.

Finally, I would also like to thank my team - Leslie, Safet, Anisa, Sabina, Tatjana, Tim, Chloé, Taylor, Vedran, Hannah - and all those who have supported our work over the past year and in particular our donors whose continued faith in us makes these initiatives possible.

I encourage you to join us as we continue on this remarkable journey in 2016, be it working with us at the Center, supporting us directly, or simply taking each step with us via Facebook, Twitter or our website.

Thank you,

Velma ŠarićExecutive Director

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Annual Report 2014-2015

Velma with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and H.E. Mr. Nassir Ab-dulaziz Al-Nasser, UNAOC (Photo: Intercultural Innovation Award)

PCRC Projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina#TimeToAct

In November 2014, PCRC and the British Embassy Sarajevo organized the activi-ties of launching and presenting the “In-ternational Protocol on the Documenta-tion and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict” in Bosnia and Herzegovina. After its initial launch in the BiH Parlia-ment, the Protocol was then presented in Mostar, Banja Luka, Brčko, and Zeni-ca to civil society organizations, victims’ associations, international organizations, activists, local government officials, Bos-nian students and members of the gen-eral public.

The International Protocol on the Doc-umentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict (PSVI) was present-ed at each event by British Embassy representatives and experts working on the development of the Protocol. Total attendance across the course of the four events numbered approximately 500 in-dividuals, whilst significant media cover-age was received at local and national levels.

Since 2010, PCRC’s Executive Director Velma Šarić has also been working with UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie in an attempt to further catalyze the discus-sion surrounding survivors’ rights.

WARM Festival 2015

PCRC, working in partnership with the WARM Foundation, organized the sec-ond annual WARM Festival in Sarajevo from 28 June to 4 July 2015. The WARM Festival is dedicated to war reporting and war art, as well as history and memo-ries of conflict and to the promotion of emerging talents and education in an ef-fort to bring better understanding of war and promote peace.

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Velma Saric greets Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and survivors at the premiere of “In the Land of Blood and Honey” in Sarajevo

PCRC interns help prepare for the opening ceremony of the 2015 WARM Festival at Kino Meeting Point in Sarajevo

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Banja Luka

Mostar

Gorazde

Sarajevo

KakanjVisoko

Vares Kladanj

Tuzla

Srebrenica

Brcko

Zenica

Our Work in BiH


Bijeljina

Istocno Sarajevo

Trebinje

Prijedor

My Body: A War Zone

As a way to support both the #TimeToAct campaign and the WARM Festival, PCRC unveiled “My Body: A War Zone”, a pho-to exhibition created in partnership with PROOF: Media for Social Justice. The exhi-bition features the portraits and testimonies of women survivors of sexual violence from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nepal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Co-lombia. The exhibition was created to sup-port the culture of punishing these heinous crimes that are, unfortunately, still common

in our society. This deeply moving photog-raphy exhibition displays the personal tes-timonies and portraits of women who have been subjected to sexual violence during conflict.

“My Body: A War Zone’’ was unveiled by H.E. Edward Ferguson, British Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the launch of the International Protocol in Sarajevo and dis-played in prominent locations at each of the local events around BiH. During the 2015 WARM Festival, the exhibition was unveiled in front of the BBI Centar in Sarajevo.

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Above: “My Body, A War Zone” exhibition in MostarBelow: The PCRC team at the PSVI Protocol Launch in Banja Luka

Velma presents “Ordinary Heroes” in GorazdeA passerby reacts to the “My Body, A War Zone” exhibit in Brcko


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One Million Bones: Road to Srebrenica

The Post-Conflict Research Center and The Art of Revolution (Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA) worked together to bring 100,000 of the bones created for the One Million Bones project to Bosnia and Her-zegovina. One Million Bones is a large-scale social arts practice, which com-bines education, hands-on art making, and public installations to raise aware-ness of ongoing genocides and mass atrocities.

From 8 to 12 July 2015, PCRC gathered more than 100 volunteers in Srebreni-ca from all over Bosnia and the greater Balkan region, as well as international volunteers from around the world, such as the Netherlands, Costa Rica, United States, Australia, France, Norway, Unit-ed Kingdom, Slovenia, Austria, and the Czech Republic, to take part in a youth event centered around increasing Bos-nian and regional youth involvement in peacebuilding processes and educating them on topics related to moral courage,

interethnic cooperation, and genocide prevention.

On 10 July, our youth event in the cen-ter of Srebrenica offered young peo-ple the possibility to listen to speeches from journalists who directly experienced the Bosnian war, activists from different countries within the Balkan region, and professionals from various organizations, including the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide (OSAPG), the Office of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the International Criminal Tribunal for the for-mer Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR), and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (HCHR).

The five-day event was divided amongst different activities, such as the “Laying of the Bones” ceremony, an intercultur-al conference and a visit to the Srebren-ica-Potočari Memorial Complex for the twentieth anniversary commemoration of the Srebrenica genocide.


Ordinary Heroes

Amongst PCRC’s work is our award-win-ning Ordinary Heroes project, which tells the stories of ordinary people who in times of conflict stood up to protect oth-ers selflessly, often at risk of life and limb. The aim of the project is to provide stories that challenge the status quo of ethnic division in Bosnia and in the Balkans in order to foster reconciliation through an educational and multimedia approach. In our “Ordinary Heroes” documentary se-ries and the accompanying “Rescuers” photographic exhibition, shown across many cities in Bosnia and Herzegovi-na, as well as in Serbia, Croatia and the United Kingdom, we provide insights into the heroic actions of ordinary civilians in Cambodia, Rwanda, the Balkans and during the Holocaust.

PCRC has been recognized internation-ally for this unique approach to peace-building and reconciliation. Awards re-ceived include first prize in the 2014 United Nations Alliance of Civilisations (UNAOC) and BMW Group Intercultural Innovation Award, the 2015 Council of Europe Diversity Challenge Award, and in April 2011, our work was recognized by then-United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In order to continue our activities within the project and to promote unique res-cuers stories, PCRC organized “Heroes in Training’’ youth workshops and “Or-dinary Heroes’’ documentary screen-ings in seven municipalities in BiH during 2014/2015. Towns visited include Ze-nica, Tuzla, Goražde, Kakanj, Visoko, Kladanj and Vareš. A modified version of the “Heroes in Training” workshop was also presented at the University of Edin-burgh in February 2014.

“There Is Always A Choice” Youth Event

Inspired by the launch of the “Ordinary Heroes’’ project in Serbia, PCRC, togeth-er with the Forum Ziviler Friedensdienst Bosnia and Herzegovina (forumZFD), or-ganized the “There is always a choice – civil courage in times of war and peace’’ youth conference in Tuzla (YET15) from 27 to 30 August. This conference served as a regional exchange platform and place for debate, education and informa-tion related to the topics of dealing with the past, culture of remembrance, and memory work in general, with the par-ticular focus on moral and civil courage. During the opening ceremony of the con-ference, PCRC unveiled its “Rescuers’’

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A screening of “Ordinary Heroes” in Zenica, BiH(Photo: ADZF Zenica)

“Ordinary Hero” Hasan Jusovic speaks at the opening of YET15 in Tuzla (Photo: forumZFD BiH)


“There Is Always A Choice” Youth Event

Inspired by the launch of the “Ordinary Heroes’’ project in Serbia, PCRC, togeth-er with the Forum Ziviler Friedensdienst Bosnia and Herzegovina (forumZFD), or-ganized the “There is always a choice – civil courage in times of war and peace’’ youth conference in Tuzla (YET15) from 27 to 30 August. This conference served as a regional exchange platform and place for debate, education and informa-tion related to the topics of dealing with the past, culture of remembrance, and memory work in general, with the par-ticular focus on moral and civil courage. During the opening ceremony of the con-ference, PCRC unveiled its “Rescuers’’

photography exhibition at Liberty Square (trg Slobode) in Tuzla. During the event, PCRC held two “Heroes in Training’’ workshops and two “Ordinary Heroes’’ film screenings, involving more than 100 young participants.

Media Literacy and Resisting Manip-ulation Youth Workshop

As part of its Balkan Diskurs project, PCRC developed a youth training work-shop that combines investigative journal-ism with creative methods of storytelling to shed light on the consequences from the lack of integrity and transparency in the media on society. We provided Bos-nian youth participants with an opportu-nity to develop their skills on journalism, fair and balanced reporting, and multime-dia.

The “Media Literacy and Resisting Ma-nipulation” youth workshop was held in Sarajevo from 25 to 29 October 2014.

Participants came from fifteen different municipalities in BiH, and they current-ly serve as local correspondents for our Balkan Diskurs multimedia web portal.

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A screening of “Ordinary Heroes” in Zenica, BiH(Photo: ADZF Zenica)

Leslie leads a “Heroes in Training” workshop as part of YET15 in Tuzla (Photo: forumZFD BiH)

A Balkan Diskurs trainee participates in the “Media Literacy and Resisting Manipulation” youth workshop in Sarajevo


vt

Activities Abroad

Edinburgh

Vukovar

Belgrade

Munich

l Sao Paulo

f Chicago. New York City, Oklahoma and South Carolina

The Hague

London

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Vienna

Zagreb

Budapest

Gothenburg

Strasbourg

Berlin

vt

Dubai mKigali i

Bali m

In 2014-2015, our projects were presented in over a

dozen countries on five con-tinents through the work of

our staff and partners.

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Budapest

Regional Impact and CooperationPCRC is very proud of its accomplishments in taking its projects abroad with the help of our supporters.

Vukovar, Croatia

As a part of the “Europe Equals Equality’’ project, implemented by the Youth Initia-tive for Human Rights (YIHR) Croatia, we opened our photo exhibition “Rescuers’’ in Hotel Lav in Vukovar, Croatia, in De-cember 2014. In addition, PCRC Proj-ect Manager Tatjana Milovanović held a presentation and film screening with young people from Vukovar, where she discussed different regional approaches in peacebuilding initiatives and the impor-tance of critical review of Balkan history.

With these thematic lectures and short film screenings, we aim to teach young people that being an “ordinary hero’’ in everyday life is more than necessary. Our cooperation with YIHR Croatia showed a deep intercultural understanding and cooperation with two communities, en-couraging community development and building of much-needed confidence.

Edinburgh, Scotland

On 26 and 27 February 2015, The Post-Conflict Research Center (PCRC) presented its award-winning Ordinary Heroes project at The University of Ed-inburgh. The presentation included screenings of the “Ordinary Heroes” doc-umentary series, “The Rescuers” photo exhibition and a “Heroes in Training” con-

flict prevention workshop. The exhibition was displayed in the Chrystal MacMillan Building Lobby and was seen by more than 500 students during its launch and three-day stay in Edinburgh. The exhibit was also shown during the University’s Innovative Learning Week from 16 to 19

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‘’This exhibition is a real example of human harmony and the way in which people should treat each other. It is completely normal to help people in need and thus show the true power of the human spirit. In this way, each of us becomes a hero. The power is in the people and in their hearts.’’

- Joco, Osijek

Leslie Woodward and Yeree Woo visit the University of Edinburgh to present the Ordinary Heroes project


With these thematic lectures and short film screenings, we aim to teach young people that being an “ordinary hero’’ in everyday life is more than necessary. Our cooperation with YIHR Croatia showed a deep intercultural understanding and cooperation with two communities, en-couraging community development and building of much-needed confidence.

Edinburgh, Scotland

On 26 and 27 February 2015, The Post-Conflict Research Center (PCRC) presented its award-winning Ordinary Heroes project at The University of Ed-inburgh. The presentation included screenings of the “Ordinary Heroes” doc-umentary series, “The Rescuers” photo exhibition and a “Heroes in Training” con-

flict prevention workshop. The exhibition was displayed in the Chrystal MacMillan Building Lobby and was seen by more than 500 students during its launch and three-day stay in Edinburgh. The exhibit was also shown during the University’s Innovative Learning Week from 16 to 19

February as part of the TEDxEdinburgh event in George Square. During the visit, Leslie Woodward, P-CRC Co-Founder and Project Director, screened two of our “Ordinary Heroes” documentary series followed by an interactive Q&A session with students from The University of Ed-inburgh. She also delivered a “Heroes in Training” workshop tailored to this more academic setting.

Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA

In June 2015, Co-Founder and Project Director Leslie Woodward attended the “Roots of Goodness and Resistance to Evil” workshop in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The workshop, organized by the Fetzer Institute, was designed and led by Dr. Er-vin Staub, upon whose work on rescuer-ship behavior much of our peacebuilding approach was built. Dr. Staub also serves on PCRC’s International Advisory Board.

Kigali, Rwanda

As a result of our successful cooper-ation with Youth Service Organization from Rwanda, a partnership that started thanks to the 2014 Intercultural Innova-tion Award, we shared our award-winning Ordinary Heroes project by screening our documentary series at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Rwanda.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

PCRC Executive Director Velma Šarić and Project Director Leslie Woodward participated in this year’s Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 4 to 7 May 2015. They worked on promoting our research center and con-necting with various organizations and companies that work on and support so-cial responsibility projects.

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“It was very interesting to screen the movie. We received good feedback from the attendees who wish to continue taking part and learning about peacebuilding and reconciliation initiatives.’’

- Pacifique, YSO Founder


Leslie meets Dr. Ervin Staub at the Fetzer Institute workshop in Kalamazoo, Michigan

Strasbourg, France

From 19-22 October 2014, PCRC Project Manager Tatjana Milovanović participat-ed in the 29th Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe (CoE) in Strasbourg, France. Tatjana was selected as the sole youth delegate representing Bosnia and Herzegovina in this year’s Congress session, and she actively participated in plenary sessions and chamber meetings together with youth and government rep-resentatives from CoE member states. She also met with Andreas Kiefer, Sec-retary General of the Congress, togeth-er with the government delegates from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

New York City, USA

On 12 and 13 November 2015, PCRC took part in a conference hosted by the Harriman Institute at Columbia Universi-ty in the City of New York. The confer-ence marked the 20th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the

1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. As a part of the conference, PCRC pre-sented a video about the Dayton Peace Agreement from the youth’s perspective. The new video was produced by this year’s Balkan Diskurs youth correspon-dents from across Bosnia-Herzegovina with our support.

Norman, Oklahoma, USA

PCRC Co-founder & Project Director Leslie Woodward was recently invited to present PCRC’s work and, specifically, its award-winning Ordinary Heroes project with students and faculty of the Universi-ty of Oklahoma’s College of International Studies. During this visit, Leslie present-ed some of our documentary movies, in-cluding Uspomene 677 and one episode from the Ordinary Heroes documentary series. Later, she joined the panel discus-sion at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art with Suzette Grillot, Dean of the College of International Studies, and Dr. Jill Irvine, an expert in the field of women’s and gender studies.

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PCRC Project Manager Tatjana Milovanovic represented Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Council of Europe’s 29th Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities in Strasbourg, France (Photo: Council of Europe)

1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. As a part of the conference, PCRC pre-sented a video about the Dayton Peace Agreement from the youth’s perspective. The new video was produced by this year’s Balkan Diskurs youth correspon-dents from across Bosnia-Herzegovina with our support.

Norman, Oklahoma, USA

PCRC Co-founder & Project Director Leslie Woodward was recently invited to present PCRC’s work and, specifically, its award-winning Ordinary Heroes project with students and faculty of the Universi-ty of Oklahoma’s College of International Studies. During this visit, Leslie present-ed some of our documentary movies, in-cluding Uspomene 677 and one episode from the Ordinary Heroes documentary series. Later, she joined the panel discus-sion at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art with Suzette Grillot, Dean of the College of International Studies, and Dr. Jill Irvine, an expert in the field of women’s and gender studies.

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Above: PCRC Co-founder and Project Director Leslie Woodward presents our work to students at the University of Oklahoma

Below: PCRC Founder and Executive Director attends an Intercultural Innovation Award alumni meeting in Berlin, Germany (Photo: UNAOC)

Leslie Woodward participates in a panel discussion at the University of Oklahoma

The PCRC team hosts a panel on interfaith coopera-tion and moral courage for visiting UNAOC Fellows

Genocide Prevention WorkshopsThe fourth annual Genocide Prevention Seminar, “A Framework for Preventing and Responding to Genocide and Atroci-ty Crimes”, was held in Belgrade, Serbia, on 17 and 18 November 2014. The two-day seminar was organized by the Office of the Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide (OSAPG) in collaboration with the Post-Conflict Research Center to build the capacity of civil society orga-nizations (CSOs) in the Balkans working in the fields of human rights, peacebuild-ing, and the prevention and prosecution of crimes against humanity. The seminar sought to raise awareness toward factors that cause genocide and mass atrocities and facilitate discussions on practical ap-plications for CSOs to contribute to the prevention of genocide.

Twenty-three participant organizations were selected from Bosnia and Herze-govina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montene-gro, and Serbia based on the strength of their application. The seminar was di-vided thematically along risk factors de-rived from the “Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes” published by the United Nations in 2014. Presentations were giv-en by David J. Simon, Lecturer in the De-partment of Political Science at Yale Uni-versity, as well as the Associate Director of Yale’s Genocide Studies Program and the Director of that program’s Rwandan Genocide Project, and Dr. Adam Jones,

political scientist, writer, and photojour-nalist based at the University of British Colombia Okanagan in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. He is best known for his work in comparative genocide studies and is author of a leading textbook in the field, “Genocide: A Comprehensive Intro-duction”.

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The UN OSAPG presented its “Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes” at the 2014 workshop in Belgrade


A UN representative discusses the Framework with work-shop attendees (Photos: UN OSAPG)

political scientist, writer, and photojour-nalist based at the University of British Colombia Okanagan in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. He is best known for his work in comparative genocide studies and is author of a leading textbook in the field, “Genocide: A Comprehensive Intro-duction”.

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Warriors of PeaceAs part of the #TimeToAct campaign for the Prevention of Sexual Violence in Con-flict, PCRC organized a three-day event from 25 to 27 November 2014 entitled “Warriors of Peace”, a women’s film and photography series, which explores sur-vivors’ experiences of sexual violence in conflict, the stigmatization and socio- economic challenges they have faced since, and the shortcomings and chal-lenges of existing responses.

The event included various film screen-ings, including “I Came to Testify” and

“War Redefined” of PBSʼ Women, War and Peace documentary series, pro-duced by Abigail Disney; Unprotected and Uspomene 677, produced by PCRC and Pinch Media; Angelina Jolieʼs feature In the Land of Blood and Honey; Duhovi Prošlosti by the Center of Investigative Reporting (CIN); and Sexual Violence and the Triumph of Justice, produced by the ICTY.

The photographic exhibition “Hasija’s Story” by photograper Velija Hasanbe-gović, featuring one Bosnian woman’s plight after surviving detention in a rape camp, was also unveiled at the launch of the event.

“Warriors of Peace’’ was organized in co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and art kino Kriterion in Sarajevo.

BalkanDiskursThe Balkan Diskurs multimedia platform was launched in August 2014. Balkan Di-skurs is a regional multimedia network of writers, bloggers, multimedia artists, and activists who came together in response to the lack of objective, relevant, invigo-rating, independent regional media.

The work featured on the Balkan Diskurs website connects themes across bor-ders and provide fresh and independent views on issues that matter to people in the Western Balkans. This platform is dedicated to challenging stereotypes and providing viewpoints that cannot be found in other media. This platform also plays an integral role in the publication and promotion of work produced by the fifteen youth bloggers we selected to take part in our inaugural media work-shop, held in Sarajevo in October 2014.

In its first year since inception, Balkan Di-skurs has published over 100 articles, pho-to essays, videos and cartoons on topics relating to transitional justice, inequality and human rights. We have also created partnerships with different media and news portals from around the world, including Index on Censorship, Global Voices, War-scapes and Insight on Conflict.

A new Balkan Diskurs website with more interactive features and in-depth articles was launched on 30 November 2015. Since this launch, we have seen increased readership and interaction be-tween posts, strengthening Balkan Di-skurs’ role as a censorship-free platform

for young voices in the region. Addition-ally, our new “Combating Hate Speech Through Citizen Media” training program took place in Sarajevo in October 2015, as part of our ongoing work to support young journalists, photographers, film-makers, and activists in Bosnia and Her-zegovina.

This year, PCRC selected 15 young Bos-nians from across the country to partic-ipate in this four-day multimedia training workshop. The program focussed on teaching participants how to identify, monitor and report incidents of online hate speech and discrimination. The workshop also dealt with the use of cit-izen journalism in proactively challeng-ing negative stereotypes and prejudices against other ethnic and minority groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Our partici-pans had the chance to interact with and learn from experts in the fields of journal-ism, photography and filmmaking with the ultimate goal to train participants who now serve as local correspondents for Balkan Diskurs. As such, PCRC will be providing trainees with a year of support following the program.

Srđan Aleksić Youth Competition

This past year, PCRC organized the first round of the “Srđan Aleksić Youth Compe-tition” with the aim to allow young people the chance to discover, collect and share stories of peacebuilding, moral courage and inter-ethnic cooperation within their own communities. After receiving over 100 applications, we managed to select ten finalists and award three winning sto-ries. Each article was published on our Balkan Diskurs platform.

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Global BroadcastingThe “Ordinary Heroes” documentary series is part of a larger multimedia and education-al project that utilizes stories of tolerance and reconciliation to inspire moral courage and interethnic cooperation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The documentary series fea-tures stories of ordinary people from differ-ent ethnic backgrounds helping each other during the war, often risking their own lives.

To date, the series consists of four epi-sodes: “Mina and Ferid”, “Zoran and Azra”, “Jagoda and Hamdija”, and “Đorđe and Salih”. Each 30-minute episode includes interviews with the rescuers and those they saved; conversations with neighbors, friends, and family members who can con-tribute to their stories; and an insight into the impact rescuer behavior has on the process of reconciliation, peace building and democratic transition.

With the aim of regional representation of these movies and sharing stories of Bos-nian rescuers in the Balkans and beyond, PCRC has partnered with Al Jazeera Bal-kan’s regional program Regioscope, with

an audience of over 500,000 viewers, to broadcast two out of our four movies in Autumn 2015.

The story of Zoran Mandelbaum, former President of the Jewish Community in Mostar and one of our featured rescuers, was also recently featured on UN Web TV. During the course of the war, he risked his life to help his fellow citizens in Mostar. Over the past year, we have worked with UN Web TV to share Zoran’s story with the world. UN Web TV’s show “21st Century” is distributed in English, French, Chinese and Arabic, among other languages, to nearly 80 broadcasters around the world with a combined audience of over 300 mil-lion viewers.

Moreover, our work has already been fea-tured in several cinemas and film festivals around the world, including Raindance Film Festival, art kino Kriterion (Sarajevo), Front-line Club London, and the following TV net-works and news portals: Federal TV, BHRT, Radio Free Europe, TV N1, France 24, London Post, Global Voices, BalkanInsight, and Trans-conflict, among others. The Or-dinary Heroes documentary series was also screened this autumn at the “Bosnia and Herzegovina: 20 Years After Dayton” conference at the Central European Uni-versity in Budapest, Hungary, and during the ‘’UF Film Festival - Peace and Conflict’’’ in Gothenburg, Sweden.

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Zoran Mandelbaum, whose story is featured in the “Ordinary Heroes” documentary series, passed away on 9 November 2015 at the age of 69.


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“Thank you for making this project possible. I gained wonderful experi-

ence and met such great people, and I will remember this forever. For me, it was important to come to Srebrenica,

because I wanted to correct a major error for any of my ancestors that

participated in this genocide. I look forward to participating in future

activities like these. We proved that even in Srebrenica it’s possible to cre-ate friendships through compassion.”

- Stefan Kandić, Participant from Podgorica, Montenegro

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Above: PCRC volunteers carry a banner stating “Stop Geno-cide Denial” at the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Complex

Below: Volunteers lay 100,000 bones at Srebrenica

A bone laid at Srebrenica, stating “God bless the Children”

Over 100 youth volunteers participated in the “One Million Bones: Road to Srebrenica” conference

Council of Europe Diversity Advantage ChallengeThis year, PCRC was honored to be placed in the top five finalists for the 2015 Council of Europe Diversity Advan-tage Challenge for our Ordinary Heroes project. PCRC Founder and Executive Director Velma Šarić attended the award ceremony at the Council of Europe head-quarters in Strasbourg, France, on 24 March 2015. PCRC’s entry was the only

project nominated for the short list of fi-nalists from outside the European Union and the sole entry recognized in Bos-nia-Herzegovina.

The Diversity Advantage Challenge is a means of raising awareness among the public and decision makers about the benefits of diversity and of providing a large number of examples of how organ-isations, businesses and cities have real-ised these benefits by creating innovative products, services, ideas and initiatives.

Submissions by PCRC and other orga-nizations were assessed on relevance, degree of social innovation, impact, sus-tainability and scalability.

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PCRC Founder and Executive Director Velma Saric with other finalists and the jury of the 2015 Council of Europe Diver-sity Advantage Challenge in Strasbourg, France (Photo: Council of Europe)

Velma Saric attends the Diversity Advantage Challenge award ceremony in Strasbourg (Photo: Council of Europe)

project nominated for the short list of fi-nalists from outside the European Union and the sole entry recognized in Bos-nia-Herzegovina.

The Diversity Advantage Challenge is a means of raising awareness among the public and decision makers about the benefits of diversity and of providing a large number of examples of how organ-isations, businesses and cities have real-ised these benefits by creating innovative products, services, ideas and initiatives.

Submissions by PCRC and other orga-nizations were assessed on relevance, degree of social innovation, impact, sus-tainability and scalability.

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Velma Saric attends the Diversity Advantage Challenge award ceremony in Strasbourg (Photo: Council of Europe)

Above: UNAOC Fellows visiting Sarajevo enjoy a pre-sentation on interfaith cooperation in peace building

Below: PCRC volunteers attend the Women’s Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, 7-10 May 2015

Enhancing Our NetworkWorld Intercultural Facility for Innova-tion

On 28 August 2014, the Post-Conflict Re-search Center was awarded first place for its Ordinary Heroes project by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the BMW Group at the Intercultural In-novations Award Ceremony held during the 6th Global Forum of the UNAOC in Bali, In-donesia.

Along with the remaining finalists, PCRC become part of the “World Intercultural Fa-cility for Innovation” (WIFI) — a UNAOC and BMW Group program designed to help or-

ganizations to become more efficient and to expand their operations. Over the next 12 months, PCRC gained access to special-ized trainings to further develop a diverse set of skills including leadership, communi-cations, and financial sustainability. Trainings

took place in Munich, Germany; South Car-olina, USA; and São Paulo, Brazil.

PCRC Executive Director Velma Šarić par-ticipated in The Intercultural Innovation Award Alumni Meeting in Berlin, Germany, from 2-4 November 2015. This is the first Alumni meeting during which participants had the possibility to exchange skills and knowledge and explore future possibilities to grow together.

“Unknown Heroes’’ in Belgrade

On 10 June 2015, PCRC participated in a public discussion on “Unknown Heroes”, or-ganized by the Forum Ziviler Friedensdienst (forumZFD) Serbia, at the Media Centar Bel-grade. Together with panelists from Kosovo, Serbia and Macedonia, we discussed what it means to be a hero in everyday life and what influence heroes have in our societies.

OSCE Seminars

On 1 June 2015, PCRC participated in the Seminar on Youth Political Participation in Belgrade organized by the OSCE Mission to Serbia and the OSCE Office for Democrat-ic Institutions and Human Rights - ODIHR. During the seminar, we discussed youth issues and good practices with topical ex-perts from Serbia and the greater Balkan region.

On 3 September 2015, PCRC volunteers participated at the OSCE conference “Work-ing with Youth for Youth: Protection against Radicalization” in Belgrade. The conference brought together youth representatives, OSCE staff and other members of civil so-ciety. During the conference, it was pointed out that terrorism is a crime that has no jus-tification, and that it should not be confused with any race, nationality or religion.

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Velma Saric attends the WIFI social media train-ing and networking event in Sao Paulo, Brazil (Photo: Intercultural Innovation Award)

took place in Munich, Germany; South Car-olina, USA; and São Paulo, Brazil.

PCRC Executive Director Velma Šarić par-ticipated in The Intercultural Innovation Award Alumni Meeting in Berlin, Germany, from 2-4 November 2015. This is the first Alumni meeting during which participants had the possibility to exchange skills and knowledge and explore future possibilities to grow together.

“Unknown Heroes’’ in Belgrade

On 10 June 2015, PCRC participated in a public discussion on “Unknown Heroes”, or-ganized by the Forum Ziviler Friedensdienst (forumZFD) Serbia, at the Media Centar Bel-grade. Together with panelists from Kosovo, Serbia and Macedonia, we discussed what it means to be a hero in everyday life and what influence heroes have in our societies.

OSCE Seminars

On 1 June 2015, PCRC participated in the Seminar on Youth Political Participation in Belgrade organized by the OSCE Mission to Serbia and the OSCE Office for Democrat-ic Institutions and Human Rights - ODIHR. During the seminar, we discussed youth issues and good practices with topical ex-perts from Serbia and the greater Balkan region.

On 3 September 2015, PCRC volunteers participated at the OSCE conference “Work-ing with Youth for Youth: Protection against Radicalization” in Belgrade. The conference brought together youth representatives, OSCE staff and other members of civil so-ciety. During the conference, it was pointed out that terrorism is a crime that has no jus-tification, and that it should not be confused with any race, nationality or religion.

Anna Lindh Foundation

In September 2015, PCRC joined the Bos-nian network of the Anna Lindh Foundation. Our Project Manager Tatjana Milovanović participated in the eighth network meeting held in Mostar from 3 to 5 September. The meeting was held to strengthen communi-cation and cooperation amongst the net-work’s members from all around the country.

Meeting with UK Representatives of Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Delegation

On 2 September 2015, The British Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Pre-venting Sexual Violence in Conflict, Baron-ess Joyce Anelay, met with representatives from six non-governmental organizations working throughout Bosnia and Herzegov-ina in support of survivors of wartime sex-ual violence. Our Executive Director Velma Šarić was invited to attend this event. During the meeting, participants talked about the

achievements and challenges NGOs face in their work in the region, but also the lessons learned in Bosnia and Herzegovina that can be applied to other parts of the world where similar crimes have occurred.

United Nations Alliance of Civilizations

From 12 to 14 August 2015, the Post-Con-flict Research Center had the privilege to welcome its partners and supporters from the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) in their visit to Sarajevo. During their stay, UNAOC representatives learned more about PCRC’s work and future ac-tivities. This cooperation started in August 2014, when PCRC was honored with the Intercultural Innovation Award. The Award is sponsored through a partnership between the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and the BMW Group.

In late October 2015, participants in the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UN-AOC) Fellowship Program visited Sarajevo - the third stop of their program after Mo-rocco and Qatar. This Fellowship program was first conducted in 2010 with the aim of fostering intercultural exchange and inter-faith trust in Europe and around the world. Since PCRC won the Intercultural Innova-tion Award in 2014, UNAOC decided to give its fellows the opportunity to meet last year’s awardees and their community. During their visit, PCRC organized two panel sessions for the UNAOC Fellows. One session fo-cused on the work of the non-governmental sector in the area of interfaith cooperation and the second on moral courage and its importance in everyday life.

Women’s Court of Bosnia and Herze-govina

From 7 to 10 May 2015, PCRC team mem-bers attended the Women’s Court of Bos-nia and Herzegovina. This event provided

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Baroness Joyce Anelay meets with Bosnian civil society representatives, including Velma Saric, in Zenica (Photo: Oslobodjenje)

a unique platform for women to share their stories and encouraged women to testify about all kinds of structural injustices in Bos-nia, among them poverty, exploitation at the workplace, uncontrolled rule of market laws, and threats to health and society.

Council of Europe and the European Youth Foundation

In April 2015, PCRC Project Developer Tim Bidey was in Strasbourg with the Council of Europe and the European Youth Foun-dation (EYF). Tim participated in the “(Re)Generation” seminar alongside representa-tives of national and local youth NGOs from all across Europe. The primary goals of the seminar were to create a common under-standing concerning the pilot activities sup-ported by the EYF, as well as to establish, define and strengthen new ways of working together.

Visit of HRH Princess Anne, The Prin-cess Royal in Sarajevo

In July 2015, PCRC Project Developer Tim Bidey gave a public reading of Hasan Nuha-nović’s book “The Escape, Road to Srebren-ica” to HRH Princess Anne, The Princess Royal, H.E. Ambassador Edward Ferguson, Council of Ministers Chairman Denis Zvizdić, and other audience members at the Hotel Bristol in Sarajevo. HRH The Princess Royal spent three days in Bosnia and Herzegovi-na representing the United Kingdom during the 20th anniversary commemoration of the Srebrenica genocide.

Meeting with Swedish Foreign Ministry

On 10 July 2015, PCRC’s Executive Direc-tor Velma Šarić met with the Delegation of the Swedish Minsistry of Foreign Affairs, in-cluding Foreign Minsister Margot Wallström, in Sarajevo. The meeting, organized by the Swedish Embassy Sarajevo and attended by representatives from different NGOs in BiH, was held in order to discuss obstacles NGOs face in everyday work and the chal-lenges currently being navigated in Bosnian society.

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Above Left: Velma Saric meets with Swedish FM Margot Wallström (Photo: Swedish Foreign Ministry)

Above Right: Tim Bidey meets HRH Princess Anne, The Princess Royal (Photo: British Embassy Sarajevo)

Below: Leslie Woodward attends a WIFI leadership event in Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA (Photo: Intercultural Innovation Award)

Student ProgramsStanford University

On 27 March 2015, PCRC organized a visit to the memorial hospital in Vuko-var, Croatia, for thirty students from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. During the trip, we led multiple discussions with students about the im-portance of multiple narratives in order to establish peace in BiH and the Balkan re-gion. Students also had the opportunity to see PCRC’s “Rescuers’’ photography exhibit and to watch one of our “Ordinary Heroes’’ documentary episodes. Stu-dents expressed great interest in the is-sues of post-conflict processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina and different methods of transitional justice.

Danish Institute for Study Abroad

On 31 March 2015, PCRC organized a team visit for Danish Institute for Study

Abroad (DIS) students to the International

Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) laboratories in Tuzla and the war memori-als in Bratunac and Srebrenica-Potočari. This day, dedicated to remembering and honoring victims of Srebrenica and more generally of the Balkan wars, deeply touched the students and helped them to put faces to numbers.

Students gained knowledge about the historical, political and social components that have culminated in the fragile state of BiH today, which allow them to use crit-ical thinking skills to formulate their own perspective regarding the future of BiH.

New York University

From 28 June to 1 July 2015, PCRC hosted a group from the NYU Center for Global Affairs in their visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina. During this visit, students met with representatives of different in-ternational and local organizations in Sa-

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‘’One of my biggest takeaways was that, as cliché as it sounds, we can never stop trying for peace. Speaking with and listening to the people whose daily lives revolved around trying to make this coun-try and its people happier was nothing short of inspiring. And despite the difficulties and bleak outlook, it taught me that change can come through persistence and resilience - two qualities the Bos-nian people definitely possess.’’

- Thomas, DIS Student

Visiting students from Stanford University partic-ipated in a discussion on competing narratives in Vukovar, Croatia

rajevo that work with transitional justice and peacebuilding in the region. These organizations included TRIAL - Track Impunity Always, the Balkan Investiga-tive Network (BIRN), and the offices of the ICMP and ICTY in Sarajevo. As well, students met with Hasija Branković from the Women’s Association of War Victims to discuss the position of women victims of war in Bosnia today and the obstacles they face in everyday life. In order to get a clearer perspective on youth and different peace building initia-tives in Bosnia, students held interactive sessions with Dr. Sabina Čehajić-Clancy from the Sarajevo School of Science of Technology and Tim Bidey, PCRC Project Developer. After two days in Sarajevo, the students travelled to the Potočari-Sre-brenica Memorial Complex. During this visit, they met with survivors of Srebren-ica genocide, had a guided tour around the memorial center and visited the me-morial room in Potočari.

Field Visit of Delegation from Repub-lic of Turkey

On 14 December 2014, PCRC organized a visit for the delegation of the Repub-lic of Turkey to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The delegation consisted of prominent Turkish journalists, academics, represen-tatives of the governmental and non-gov-ernmental sector, as well as MA and PhD candidates from prestigious Turkish uni-versities.

On this occasion, our guests visited Kon-jević Polje, where they met with Mrs. Fata Orlović and visited the village of Kravi-ca. The delegation visited the Srebreni-ca-Potočari Memorial Complex, where they met with the Mothers of Srebrenica. They also visited the town of Srebreni-ca and the “Spa Guber” springs nearby. Host and leader of this trip was PCRC

Executive Director Velma Šarić.

University of Manchester

On 2 April 2015, we had the great op-portunity to welcome students from the University of Manchester to our office in Sarajevo. Together, we discussed the ob-stacles Bosnia and Herzegovina is facing on its path to reconciliation and PCRC’s approaches to overcoming such hin-drances. Student expressed much inter-est in both PCRC’s peace building work and the post-war recovery processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

International University of Sarajevo

On 1 July 2015, PCRC Project Manager Tatjana Milovanović held a presentation for students of International University Sarajevo Summer School 2015 “Learn-ing from the past - 20 years after the Bos-nian War’’. This year, the summer school tackled the issue of using education as a tool for reconciliation and lasting peace, bringing together twenty students from fifteen countries.

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Tatjana Milovanovic gives a guest lecture at the IUS Sum-mer School in Sarajevo (Photo: IUS Sarajevo)

Executive Director Velma Šarić.

University of Manchester

On 2 April 2015, we had the great op-portunity to welcome students from the University of Manchester to our office in Sarajevo. Together, we discussed the ob-stacles Bosnia and Herzegovina is facing on its path to reconciliation and PCRC’s approaches to overcoming such hin-drances. Student expressed much inter-est in both PCRC’s peace building work and the post-war recovery processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

International University of Sarajevo

On 1 July 2015, PCRC Project Manager Tatjana Milovanović held a presentation for students of International University Sarajevo Summer School 2015 “Learn-ing from the past - 20 years after the Bos-nian War’’. This year, the summer school tackled the issue of using education as a tool for reconciliation and lasting peace, bringing together twenty students from fifteen countries.

Our work would not be pos-sible without the support of our donors.

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Tatjana Milovanovic gives a guest lecture at the IUS Sum-mer School in Sarajevo (Photo: IUS Sarajevo)

*All unaccredited photos from PCRC archives

Our TeamVelma Šarić Founder and Executive Director

Leslie WoodwardCo-Founder and Project Director

Anisa Sućeska-VekićDirector of Operations

Sabina Čehajić-ClancyExternal Evaluator

Tatjana Milovanović Project Manager and Workshop Facilitator

Tim BideyProject Developer

Chloé GaillardProject Coordinator

Safet Šarić Project Officer

Taylor McConnell Communications Manager

Hannah Hope WadeProject Coordinator

Vedran VojinovićTranslator and Project Officer

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Tim BideyProject Developer

Chloé GaillardProject Coordinator

Safet Šarić Project Officer

Taylor McConnell Communications Manager

Hannah Hope WadeProject Coordinator

Vedran VojinovićTranslator and Project Officer

Our Interns

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Sarah YandellBruce Clezy

Sejla Mehic

Thomas van Vynckt

Lejla KrkicAmila AvdukicLamija DzigalKenan Sadovic

Clara Casagrande

Juliette Ganne

Chris Bermudez Much

Zuzana Pavelkova

Chloe GaillardMarion PineauBenjamin Lemerle

Benjamin Goffrier

Anna FontaniniChiara MissikoffAlessandra Goio

Karim Sultan

Anna IdzingaMilou LiebregtsIrma Vlahovljak

Claire Smith

Hannah Hope Wade

Aisa Coric

Jemma HoareClara FantoniGeorge RossetterAlastair CarrEileen MaguireRomana KeveljJess Gosling

Matthew McEveetyTaylor McConnellStephanie SugarsJennifer MacNeillYeree WooLucinda Klarich-KahnTopher DevineAkvile ZakarauskaiteDavid SchaferCarly Carpenter

Mads JacobsenAndreas Rasmussen

Anastasios KastorisPanagiotis Parthenis

Marta Vidal

Alba Comadran

Natalija Krstova

Coordinated the

2ndWARM Festival in

Sarajevo

More than

100Volunteers support-ing One Million Bones

4Issues of

BalkanThemes

Participated in the

#timetoactcampaign against

sexual violence in conflict

More than

110Articles published

in the last year

dozensof new partnerships

with institutions around the world

Top 5In Council of Europe’s

Diversity Challenge Award

Over

35Visits to organiza-

tions around bosnia and herzegovina

5collaborative part-nerships with online

media outlets

50+Interns volunteer-

ing at PCRC since June 2014

More than

2,946likes on facebook

a growing audience of

600+Twitter followers

Over

20workshops and lec-tures organized by

pcrc

1dedicated and

passionate team

Our work shared on

5continents through staff and partners

4Episodes of the Ordi-

nary Heroes Documen-tary Series

Post-Conflict Research Center (PCRC)Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

www.p-crc.orgfacebook.com/postconflictresearchcentertwitter.com/pcrcbih

pcrc annual report 2014-2015

Documents