HELSINKI
CITIZENS ASSEMBLY GENERAL:
The Helsinki Citizens' Assembly (hCa)
is an international network of civic initiatives,
movements, social and political groups in
East and West, working for the democratic
integration of Europe. hCa's main goal is
to articulate and promote views, interests,
and political visions of civil society in
the Helsinki region about European integration
and the problems Europe is confronted with.
Discussion about integration of and the
problems in Europe cannot take place at
the level of national governments alone:
society has to be involved as well. hCa
wants to widen the debate about Europe beyond
the level of the political elites.
The
international secretariat is established
in Prague (Czech Republic), and there is
a Western Liaison Office in The Hague (The
Netherlands). There are national branches
of hCa in allmost all European countries.
Since hCa wants to create effective guarantees
for freedom, democracy and respect of human
rights in Europe, including the protection
of all kinds of civic initiatives, special
attention is paid to conflict regions. In
particular, hCa supports courageous people
who are struggling to keep civic virtues
alive in situations of war, chaos and oppression
HELSINKI CITIZEN’S ASSEMBLY
TUZLA
On April 8, 1995, hCa officially opened
its office in Tuzla. Since that time, the
hCa office in Tuzla has been actively involved
in promoting, strengthening and linking
civil initiatives in Tuzla and BiH.
We co-operate intensively with the hCa offices
in Sarajevo (opened in 1993) and in Banja
Luka (opened in 1996). Furthermore does
the hCa Tuzla office cooperates closely
with the Forum of Tuzla Citizens, the Citizens
Alternative Parliament and various other
local organisations.
AIMS
OF hCa TUZLA:
1.
The strengthening and linking of civic initiatives
in different towns in Bosnia and Herzegovina
and abroad. hCa Tuzla has made contacts
with various civic initiatives in BiH. hCa
Tuzla aims to support and promote their
activities, to get them in contact with
other partners, to assist them in organising
themselves etc. We also implemented and
initiated several networks (women, youth)
and have organised many conferences and
seminars that brought people from all over
BiH together. In a joint effort with the
Banja Luka hCa office, many contacts between
people from different "entities"
have been (re)established by hCa Tuzla.
2.
Producing regular reports and articles about
the perspectives of civil society, the political
and social situation and human rights situation
in BiH. These reports are being sent to
various partners, civic initiatives, governments,
European institutions etc.
3
hCA Tuzla functions as a contact point and
intermediary for a lot of organisations
and individuals (journalists, NGO's, municipalities,
schools, hCa-offices, politicians, etc.)
in both Tuzla and abroad. In practice this
means identifying concrete projects in Tuzla
that are in need of partners from abroad,
assisting counterparts from abroad by answering
queries, facilitating communication with
various local organisations, organising
delegations to Tuzla, etc. hCa Tuzla also
gives technical assistance in the way that
local groups can make use of the fax, computers
and international telephonelines in the
hCa office.
4.
Actively promoting international co-operation
on reconstruction-projects in Tuzla. hCa
Tuzla has for example been actively involved
in the establishment of "Dutch Cities
for Tuzla". This organisation is a
combined effort of local initiatives, NGO's,
local governments etc. in Tuzla and the
Netherlands. By implementing nine integrated
projects, Dutch Cities for Tuzla aims to
work on the economic, social and cultural
reconstruction and welfare of Tuzla and
its citizens.
ACTIVITIES
OF HCA TUZLA:
One
of the main events the hCa organised in
BiH was the General Assembly in Tuzla in
October 1995. hCa holds a General Assembly
approximately every 18 months. It is an
international gathering of about 1,000 activists
from all over Europe, North America and
beyond. A wide range of workshops and plenary
sessions provide a forum to discuss HCA-policy,
to assess hCa activities, and to develop
new projects. The topics of the workshops
include humanitarian intervention, women's
issues, citizenship laws, civic economics,
non-violent conflict resolution, inter-confessional
dialogue, the role of media in conflicts,
etc. From October 19 until 22, 1995 the
General hCa Assembly was held in the city
of Tuzla. Even though the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina
was at that time still going on, 600 people
from the former Yugoslavia, Europe and North
America came to Tuzla and participated at
the Assembly. These participants represented
international organisations, national governments,
municipalities, and of course all kinds
of civic initiatives. Aside from discussing
the normal hCa-topics, we focused on the
role the international community and civic
initiatives from both Bosnia-Herzegovina
and abroad) can play in the solution of
the conflict in Bosnia.
After
this Assembly numerous contacts of between
civic groups have been established and continued.
This resulted among others in the establishment
of the Citizen’s Alternative Parliament
(CAP), a network of civic groups all over
BiH. CAP was established by Forum of Tuzla
Citizens and hCa is the international partner
of CAP.
Some
other activities of hCa Tuzla are:
-
In close co-operation with hCa Banja Luka
and Sarajevo, hCa Tuzla organised three
women’s conferences (Zenica - June
1996) (Banja Luka - December 1996) (Mostar
- July 1997).
-
With hCa Banja Luka we set up a Youth Network
of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which at the
moment gathering more then 150 youth organizations
and individuals from all over the Bosnia
and Herzegovina.
-
We are actively engaged in establishing
an independent cultural centre/theatre in
Tuzla and we have organised trips for various
theatres to theatres in The Netherlands.
In 1998, representatives of Dutch theatres
will give various workshops in Tuzla.
-
We have facilitated and supported many contacts
between Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
and Republic Srpska (between students, theatres,
universities, schools, civic activists,
Roma etc.)
-
We have facilitated and/or organised various
Bosnian delegations to other countries in
Europe.
-
We have initiated many contacts between
local groups in Tuzla and abroad.
-
Together with our co-partner “Sae
Roma”, we have organised two big Roma
conferences and one Roma night in Tuzla.
hCa Tuzla and Sae Roma have received a grant
enabling us to work for three years on various
projects to improve living standards and
position of Roma in BiH.
-
hCa offices in Bosnia and Herzegovina organised
two seminars under the title “After
Dayton”. One concerned the legal aspects
of Dayton (Sarajevo, Jan 1997) and one on
relationship between local NGO’s and
international community in BiH in rebuilding
civil society in BiH (Banja Luka, July 1997)
-
Co-organised participation of Bosnians in
summerschools of Helsinki Citizen's Assembly
International.
If
you have questions or suggestions please
contact one of the hCa Tuzla staff-members:
Address:
hCa
Tuzla
Hadzi Bakirbega Tuzlica 1,
75000 TUZLA, BiH
Tel./fax. ++387 (0)35 258 077
e-mail: hcatuzla@bih.net.ba,
orctuzla@bih.net.ba
Contact Persons:
Miralem
Tursinovic– Director of hCa Tuzla
Emir
Sejranic - Project Co-ordinator
Delalic
Emir Zeko– Administrator
