"The rights of national minorities – the fight against discrimination"
The scientific conference “Serbian-Croatian relations: Rights of national minorities – fight against discrimination” was held in Golubić (Obrovacki), Republic of Croatia. The meeting was held on the 19th. until the 23rd August 2013 years.
On that occasion, scientists from Croatia, Serbia, the United States of America, Greece and Poland met to discuss Croatian-Serbian relations at the invitation of CHDR President Darko Gavrilović .
The meeting was traditionally attended by political representatives of the Croatian people in Serbia (DSHV) and the Serbian people in Croatia (SDSS) .
The scientists were divided into three panels:
- Solving the problems of refugees, newcomers, and national minorities as a condition for a peaceful life
- Nationalism as a tool of hatred and prejudice
- Holocaust education as a resource for learning about the past for a better future
Based on the presented works of the present scientists as well as the discussions of the political representatives of the Croatian people in Serbia and the Serbian people in Croatia, the following conclusions were reached, which relate to the theme of the meeting, but also to the political life of the Croatian people in Serbia and the Serbian people in Croatia. At the general session, the gathered scientists and politicians supported the decisions made by the three panels.
Solving the problems of refugees and national minorities and nationalism as a tool of hatred and prejudice
Groups of scientists who dealt with the issue of protecting the rights of national minorities and nationalism as a tool of hatred and prejudice came to the following joint conclusions, which to some extent coincide with the initiative of political representatives of Croats in Serbia and Serbs in Croatia:
- Developing a culture of memory based on the biosphere reserve as an example of establishing natural and cultural ties, including cross-border cooperation between Croatia and Serbia.
- Education related to the culture of memory and the connection of this type of education with other types of memory.
- To enable the right of national minorities to commemorate their victims and for the scientific community to support this initiative in Serbia and Croatia.
- Developing instruments for the implementation of constitutional and legal provisions on language.
- All laws concerning national minorities should be applied without exception, without delay and without political conditions.
- To stop negative war propaganda and exclusion of historical truth in history textbooks – history in Serbia and Croatia.
- Insist on the improvement of economic relations, joint performance on the markets, use examples of the advantages of mutual cooperation, inform businessmen from both countries about the advantages of doing business in Croatia and Serbia, insist on the cooperation of the Chambers of Commerce of Croatia and Serbia.
- Accelerating the resolution of open bilateral issues.
- Support for parliamentary diplomacy as a form of more flexible cooperation between the two states.
Holocaust education
A group of scientists who dealt with the issue of education about the Holocaust emphasized the importance of its development and application in the region. The gathered scientists believe that this type of education can help raise the level of tolerance towards minority peoples in the region as well as respect the dignity of each individual. Accordingly, the scientists concluded the following:
- Use technology ie. internet to access Holocaust sites that would be visited as part of Holocaust education. The beneficiaries would be children of all ages. To insist on the importance of the testimonies of both those who survived the Holocaust and those who committed crimes and testified in court.
- Education about valid facts about the Holocaust should become part of the history curriculum.
- In the teaching process, use texts, sources and documents related to the Holocaust.
- To face the dark side of one’s own people’s history and overcome it.
- In the teaching process of education about the Holocaust, use the letters of both those inside and outside the ghetto. Use as much proven practice as possible in learning about the Holocaust based on the analysis of letters sent to the ghetto and sent from it to the outside world, as well as learn about the victims of the Holocaust who contributed to the history, science and culture of the countries in which they lived.
- Connect human rights education with Holocaust education through non-governmental organizations and their educational programs.
- Invite teachers and professors to participate in anti-racist gatherings and festivals, where the Holocaust is discussed and fundamental moral questions are reexamined.
- Focus on fostering tolerance and the socio-political needs of minorities in cities, and teach the majority people about tolerance based on the example of the Holocaust.
- Connect with organizations such as schools, centers, non-governmental organizations, to form a network that will support efforts in the transfer of knowledge about the Holocaust, as well as work to connect it with the struggle for human rights.
- Develop educational seminars to help teachers learn more about Holocaust education and human rights education.
The political representatives of the Croatian people in Serbia and the Serbian people in Croatia agreed to support the following political initiative:
- Political representatives of Croats from Serbia and Serbs from Croatia welcome the efforts made by the governments of Croatia and Serbia to improve mutual relations.
- We request that the co-chairmen of the Interstate Mixed Committee (IMC) urgently convene a session of this body, which has not met for almost two years.
- We ask that the governments of Croatia and Serbia ensure mechanisms for implementing the conclusions of the MMO
- We suggest that, instead of a plenary mode of operation, the MMO will work thematically in the future, by areas of minority self-government
- We ask the governments of Croatia and Serbia to include representatives of Croats from Serbia and Serbs from Croatia in the working bodies that will deal with the cross-border cooperation programs of these two countries.
- We call on Presidents Nikolić and Josipović to publicly condemn the incidents that Croats in Serbia and Serbs in Croatia have been victims of recently.
Scientific papers from the meeting "Serbian-Croatian relations: The rights of national minorities - the fight against discrimination" in PDF format:
- Susanne Bleiberg Seperson: Lessons for Living from the Holocaust
- Mario Bara: Cultural heritage of Croats in Vojvodina - models of its protection
- Tomislav Žigmanov: Policies of financing the culture of minority communities in Serbia on the example of Croats in Vojvodina in 2012. year
- Ljubica Đorđević: Language and Nationalism
- Maria Kavala: Aspects of anti-Semitism in Salonika, during the Nazi Occupation (1941-1944)
- Julija Švonja: Economic and social perspectives of the Serbian national community created by the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union
- Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs: Overcoming Silence. Examples of good practice related to education about the Holocaust in Europe.
- Jovana Krdžavac: Parliamentary diplomacy between Serbia and Croatia as a model for faster resolution of open issues
- Filip Škiljan: National minorities in Croatia and the breakup of Yugoslavia
- Stevan Mačković: Holocaust - education about the past, as a condition for a better future on the example of Subotica
- Davor Pauković: National construction in Croatia: sovereignty between national and supranational
- Janko Veselinović: Comparison of commercial legislation on the example of legal regulation of the position of commercial companies in the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Croatia
