ROMED2: National Launching Meeting and Workshop, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Following a series of launch events in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, the ROMED2 Programme on democratic governance and community participation through mediation was launched in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the 19th November 2013.

A broad range of stakeholders took part in the meeting, with the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees in Bosnia and Herzegovina represented by Ms Saliha Duderija, also a member of the CAHROM Committee of Experts on Roma Issues of the Council of Europe. The event was attended by mayors of municipalities involved in the process, municipality civil servants, relevant local Roma NGOs and mediators. Representatives of the EU delegation for Bosnia and Herzegovina, of Open Society Foundations and the Head of the Council of Europe office in BiH, Mary Ann Henessey were also present and contributed to the opening statements of the launching event.

The programme is to be implemented in five municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Kakanj, Donji Vakuf, Visoko, Brcko and Bijeljina.

This promising start of the second phase of ROMED2 is in large part due to efforts from local partners, namely World Vision and Romalen. M Mujo Fafulic, the president of the latter organization also fulfills the function of ROMED2 National Project Officer for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The event was preceded on the 18th of November by the 1st National Workshop of ROMED2, attended by municipality civil servants, mediators and local NGO representatives, and will be followed on the 10-13 December 2013 by a first Session of Training of Mediators under the ROMED curriculum in cooperation with the aforementioned main partner NGOs.

Strasbourg 26/11/2013