| Press Release | REGISTRY |
(Exclusively for the use of the media. Not an official document)
CS/PR1522e
Outreach Programme’s Youth Education Project concludes amid praise from participants
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The Tribunal’s Outreach Programme yesterday concluded its groundbreaking youth education initiative for 2011/2012 academic year. The last lectures were held for law students at the University in Tuzla and at two universities in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“This project has enabled the ICTY to reach out directly to young people at high schools across the former Yugoslavia for the first time in the Tribunal’s history and has strengthened its outreach to the region’s universities”, said Nerma Jelačić, Head of Communications and Outreach at the ICTY.
Nearly 3,500 students from 50 high schools and 30 universities throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Serbia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Montenegro benefited from the project. Presentations took place in some of the communities most affected by the wars of the 1990s, including Srebrenica, Foča, Prijedor, Mostar, Vukovar, Zadar, Petrinja, Kačanik and Djakovica/Gjakovë.
The presentations brought information about the Tribunal’s work directly into the regions classrooms and lecture halls. Participants heard about cases of relevance to their country and communities, the way in which ICTY trials have contributed to the establishment of facts about numerous crimes, and the influence the ICTY has had on the development of the rule of law and reconciliation in the region.
“Ignorance creates a gap between people of different nationalities. Therefore, such presentations are welcome as they offer facts about wartime events. That contributes to better understanding among people and creates the conditions for reconciliation and coexistence,” said a fourth year student from Višegrad in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The overwhelming majority of participating students, as well as their teachers and principals, gave positive feedback following the presentations and there was widespread demand for the continuation of the project in the next academic year. Feedback also provided the ICTY with direct insight into the issues that matter most for the communities, which will be built into future outreach work with the young people of the region.
A special feature describing the implementation and main achievements of the project will be published in the near future on the Tribunal’s website.
As the ICTY moves towards the completion of its mandate, the Outreach Programme is intensifying its efforts to increase the access of local communities to information on the Tribunal’s work. In doing so, the Outreach Programme seeks to cement the Tribunal’s legacy throughout the former Yugoslavia.
The Outreach Programme benefits from the continuous support of the European Union, and its work with the youth of the former Yugoslavia has been generously supported by the Finnish government.
More information about the Outreach Programme can be found on the Tribunal’s website.
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International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
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