Open Call for Participants

Overcoming Points of Contention: Transgenerational Confrontation with the Legacy of the Armed Conflicts of the 1990s in the Former Yugoslavia

Overview of the project activities

 1.    Rationale for the project

The project “Overcoming Points of Contention: Transgenerational Confrontation with the Legacy of the Armed Conflicts of the 1990s in the Former Yugoslavia” addresses the problems of insufficient awareness, limited capacity for critical processing of information related to sensitive topics concerning the armed conflicts of the 1990s and their consequences. The project also tackles the issue of a reduced number of regional initiatives, joint activities, and the underrepresentation of a transgenerational approach to understanding crimes committed during the conflicts of the 1990s in the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

The project consortium consists of the Belgrade Open School and the Belgrade International Law Circle, along with a team of associates, primarily researchers from post-Yugoslav countries, who focus on topics of the 1990s armed conflicts and dealing with the past.

This project is implemented as a part of the regional project “Strengthening the Process of Transitional Justice in the Western Balkans”, funded by the Government of the United Kingdom (UK) and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Through the Mentorship Program and the Alternative Academic Program, the project team will enable participants (undergraduate students, young postgraduate students, and representatives of civil society organizations), mostly from post-Yugoslav countries and Albania to:

a) Critically reflect on the key points of contention in the history of the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the events of the 1990s,

b) Acquire concrete knowledge and skills for objectively assessing facts related to confronting the legacy of the 1990s conflicts, initiating and participating in inter-societal and intergenerational dialogues based on facts,

c) Create different types of content with clearly articulated authentic positions in various formats (ranging from public policy proposals to proposals for museum exhibitions).

The project’s final conference will include at least 50 representatives of academia, civil society organizations, public authorities, and the media, who will be introduced to concrete initiatives and proposals for critically and objectively examining the causes and consequences of the armed conflicts of the 1990s that emerge from the project.

Project objective: To contribute to confronting the points of contention in the interpretation of the 1990s conflicts and their consequences, grounded in objective facts, critical thinking, multiperspectivity, and the intergenerational and cross-border transfer of knowledge.

The project’s target groups are primarily from post-Yugoslav countries and Albania. By combining academic and practical work focused on dealing with the past and reconciliation - grounded in the two-way intergenerational exchange of knowledge and insights between participants and lecturers - the project builds the foundation for critically assessing the legacy of the 1990s, namely the concepts, narratives, and sites that persist in collective memory and continue to represent points of identification and ongoing conflict in post-Yugoslav societies.

With this approach, the project contributes to addressing the problem of insufficient knowledge of historical facts, legal terminology, and the broader social context of the dissolution of Yugoslavia and its processing over the past 30 years. By using specific archival material (primary and secondary historical and legal sources, video, audio, and photographic documentation), specialized tools (public policy proposals), as well as the methodological framework of critical analysis and debate, the project addresses still unresolved questions and dilemmas about the recent past and deconstructs terms that have entered everyday language without true understanding of their meaning.

2.    Project activities

Activity 1: Alternative Academic Program “The Dissolution of Yugoslavia: A Past That Does Not Fade”

The aim of the program is to enable selected undergraduate students, young postgraduates, and representatives of civil society organizations to acquire basic knowledge necessary for understanding the armed conflicts of the 1990s and their consequences. Within the program, cross-cutting themes such as the concept of responsibility for war crimes and reconciliation will be addressed. The program will last 3 months (November 2025 – January 2026) and it will consist of 12 online lectures. Every lecture will last for 2 hours and will have the following dynamics:

Here follow the overview of the topics covered within the Alternative Academic Program:

Activity 2: The Mentorship Program

The Mentorship Program is designed to offer project participants the opportunity to work in small groups on specific selected topics related to the armed conflicts of the 1990s and their consequences. The program is divided into four modules.

MODULE 1: THE YUGOSLAV WARS IN VISUAL CULTURE

This module is focused on the documentary The Death of Yugoslavia (BBC, 1996), which will be analysed both in terms of historical facts and documentary practice. The module aims to improve participants’ skills in critically assessing the potential and limitations of visual documentary material in interpreting the armed conflicts of the 1990s and their consequences. Participants will have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills on critical analysis of the visual materials dealing with the armed conflicts in Yugoslavia.

MODULE 2: WRITING EVDENCE INFORMED POLICY BRIEFS

This module will enable participants to develop a concise policy brief—a specific, multifunctional document that serves both as an advocacy tool and as a foundation for multisectoral dialogue aimed at solving a concrete problem with evidence-based recommendations.

Policy briefs developed in this module will focus on:

a) Recommendations for changes to the strategic/normative frameworks that govern the resolution of issues related to the 1990s conflicts or their consequences; or

b) Institutional practices and structures of public authorities responsible for addressing these issues.

The module also aims to develop or improve participants' skills in drafting this specific type of advocacy and communication document. A regional perspective will be emphasized when defining the problems and in the proposed solutions. Final versions of the policy briefs will be submitted to relevant public authorities for potential implementation.

MODULE 3: THE YUGOSLAV WARS IN EUROPEAN MEMORY CULTURE

Students will critically analyse and deconstruct the content of the so-called Yugoslav showcase at the House of European History in Brussels. The museum itself acknowledges the need to reassess this part of its exhibition. Participants will use museum techniques and visual tools to define and propose multiple possible narratives for representing the breakup of Yugoslavia. These new narratives should be accessible and engaging to younger generations and the general public.

The developed models of historical valorisation may also be applied to local contexts or other topics, from historical events to everyday life, initiating a systematic approach to defining the legacy of the 1990s in the post-Yugoslav region.

MODULE 4: WORKING WITH PRIMARY LEGAL MATERIALS

(Using archival materials from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and facts established before national courts as part of the reconciliation process)

Participants will become familiar with:

a) Use of original materials on war crimes created by the ICTY

b) State responsibility in proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ)

c) Individual criminal responsibility in local courts

They will learn how to use and contextualize primary materials appropriately. The module will also explore the relationship between history and international law/justice, showing how historians, political scientists, and others can work with the rich archives of the ICTY.

Modules will be implemented in parallel with the Alternative Academic Programme. Module 1 will be implemented in month of October and it will be obligatory for all of the participants and it will be designed as a preparatory activity for the implementation of the Alternative Academic Programme. Apart from the Module 1, each participant can opt for at least one more module between the Modules 2,3 and 4. These modules will be implemented in period November 2025 and February 2026 based on dynamics and methodology agreed between the participants and module coordinators within each Module.

Activity 3. Final Conference

The conference will focus on the analysis and critical understanding of the conflicts of the 1990s in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, with the aim of presenting the key outcomes of the project—particularly those related to the participants’ contributions in interpreting major points of contention and in proposing approaches to address the problems resulting from the armed conflicts of the 1990s and their consequences.

The selection and definition of the conference topics will be a joint effort of the lecturers and participants of the Alternative Academic Program (Activity 4). The choice of topics will be based on the key results of the joint work between participants and mentors within the Mentorship Program modules (Activity 3).

Although the final conference agenda will be defined during the implementation of the project, at this point it can be anticipated that the specific topics will be grouped into three major panels:

a) Interpreting key points of contention: principles and methods

b) Transitional justice and accountability

c) Regional dialogue and reconciliation

The main panellists will be project participants, while panel moderators will be selected from among the lecturers and mentors involved in the project.

All conference activities will be based on the outcomes of the project, making the event not only a presentation of the project’s results, but also a promotion of UNDP’s efforts in strengthening regional dialogue to achieve sustainable peace in the post-Yugoslav states, building more resilient communities, and fostering social cohesion and solidarity.

The conference will be organised in a hybrid form, it will last for two days and will gather 50 participants, including representatives of public authorities, academia, civil society organizations, and experts in the fields of human rights, memory culture, and transitional justice from across the post-Yugoslav region.

3.    Additional Values of the Project

a) Enabling participants to engage within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA)

Participants of the Alternative Academic Program will be awarded ECTS credits by Central European University in Vienna, which supports this initiative and intends to institutionalize it as the Invisible University for Southeastern Europe (IUSEE)—a counterpart to the Invisible University for Ukraine (IUFU), which has proven to be a highly successful educational intervention.

b) Building interethnic partnerships and ensuring the applicability and scalability of project results after its completion

The key outputs of the project—such as the curriculum and methodology of the Alternative Academic Program, policy proposals, and narrative presentation models for the breakup of Yugoslavia at the House of European History in Brussels—will be developed through collaborative work between lecturers, mentors, and participants.

By their nature, these results are designed to be applicable beyond the lifespan of the project and can be further developed as regional initiatives based on interethnic partnerships. Central European University is also prepared to integrate this project into its stratified academic programming, thereby laying the foundation for the Invisible University for Southeastern Europe (IUSEE) as a permanent educational platform.

4.    Application process

Undergraduate students, young postgraduate students, and representatives of civil society organizations, mostly from post-Yugoslav countries and Albania, are invited to apply by filling out the application form at the following link by September 23, 2025.

Selected candidates will be contacted after the application process is closed.