The main goal of the Center for History, Democracy and Reconciliation is fostering regional cooperation , promotion of democratic values and reconciliation, and continuous work on strengthening the policy of regional stability and reconciliation .
CHDR strives to influence the democratic climate in the region primarily through scientific cooperation and then through strengthening political ties that have the task of protecting peace and developing mutual understanding and respect.
We work to protect minority rights, encourage the sustainable development of national minorities, acquire knowledge from modern history in order to better understand the present. We promote tolerance in order to achieve a complete climate of trust and common coexistence in the area of Southeast Europe.
Our organization was founded in order to contribute to the creation of a more positive political climate in the region , which would be much closer to Western standards of democracy.
Our work aims to change the dominant collective and patriarchal identity into an individual civic identity. In this way, we expand the presence and influence of civil society in the territory of the former Yugoslavia.
Our task is to work on the promotion of democratic values and the removal of obstacles that prevent cooperation, understanding and peace in the region.
We work together to nurture culture of dialogue and respect for diversity.
Through our projects, we improve cooperation and reconciliation in the region .
Membership in CHDR gives us the opportunity to get involved in the process of building a democratic future.
The Road to Reconciliation, which is based on the history of the 20th century. it is shown only to those who have come to terms with the past of their own people, which is full of antagonisms, prejudices, accusations and hatred.
A common path to understanding the history of the 20th century. which we navigate through participation in projects and the development of dialogue at scientific meetings, helps us to better understand contemporary social processes in the region. Sharing these processes is one possible path to reconciliation that requires each participant to leave behind their own biases and misconceptions.
To follow this path means to look at the past from which one can clearly see a common future open to the application of complete peace, both personal and wider, social.
The central theme of the work at the Center for History, Democracy and Reconciliation (CHDR) is encouraging cooperation in the region and promoting democratic values and reconciliation.
CHDR has a democratic and political influence on our societies, which emphasizes tolerance, supports the policy of regional stability and strengthening the partnership for peace.
During the 20 century, the peoples of the former Yugoslavia survived two world wars and a whole series of wars from the nineties of the 20th century. century that influenced their political, economic, cultural and other relations.
Unfortunately, the ethnic conflicts that began in 1991 and ended ten years later, they began the latest history of mutual barbarism, hatred, fears and conflicts. However, this does not mean that all ties have been broken and that the former good inter-ethnic relations have been destroyed.
More than thirty years after the last ethnic conflict on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, there are initiatives and cooperation in our region that show the desire to restore trust, coexistence and the path to reconciliation.
These initiatives can only be realized if each participant in this process first comes to terms with his own past, which he must clear of his own prejudices.
CHDR achieves the goal of fostering regional cooperation and strengthening the policy of regional stability and reconciliation by launching research projects , organizing scientific meetings , round tables , summer schools , art colonies and co-production in the production of documentary films in the field of political and social history, with a special emphasis on the history of Yugoslavia in 20. century and the wider Southeast European region.
The participants of our projects mostly encounter problems related to topics such as: the culture of memory , protection of minority rights , ethnic conflicts , political and cultural cooperation , the influence of ideologies on societies , issues related to the protection of refugees and migrants , anti-Semitism and the Holocaust .
Given that Serbian-Croatian relations had the greatest influence on the creation and dissolution of common states in the 20th century. century, CHDR pays the most attention to them.
In this field, we deal with the contemporary history of Croatian-Serbian relations, the sustainable development of the Croatian community in Serbia and the Serbian community in Croatia both through their participation in political life and through the application of innovations in the fields of tourism and agro-economy as ways of their survival in authentic and smaller settlements.
CHDR connects with those parties and politicians in our region who support the policy of regional stability and reconciliation .
In terms of protecting the rights of national communities in Croatia and Serbia, CHDR has cooperated with the high representative of the parliamentary group of friendship with Croatia, the Democratic Union of Croats in Vojvodina and the Independent Democratic Serbian Party in Croatia .
At the gatherings in Golubić (Obrovački) in cooperation with the sister organization Association for History, Cooperation and Reconciliation from Croatia, joint work is carried out with the aforementioned parties in order to achieve the highest possible protection of the rights of the aforementioned two minority communities in Serbia and Croatia.
Through joint work with partners, CHDR respects and nurtures the culture of preservation of national communities in neighboring countries through the strengthening of their political, economic and cultural individuality.
According to CHDR, this cooperation spreads democratic values in the political arena.
Our projects support a multinational and multidisciplinary perspective of dealing with the past in the former Yugoslavia.
Its impartiality must come from the author’s willingness to hear and understand the other side, to face historical documents and use them objectively. That’s the only way, without ideologization, he can help the process of democratization and reconciliation in our region.
We believe that socially comprehensive work allows us to face prejudice and hatred in the region. We are working to overcome them and to get closer to the democratic values of European societies.
The creation of a modern democratic social community opens up opportunities for faster economic development and long-term stability. Every citizen is given the opportunity to freely express his national, religious, cultural or other convictions that allow him to be a whole person without offending others.
In July 2007 In 2008, in Leopoldskron Castle in Salzburg, scholars from the former Yugoslavia and representatives of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation (IHJR) met to discuss strategies and goals for the development of future academic cooperation.
The participants were Neven Andjelić (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Edina Bećirević (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Ljubiša Despotović (Serbia), Ranka Gašić (Serbia), Darko Gavrilović (Serbia), Vesna Ivanović (Croatia), Dušan Janjić (Serbia), Leon Malazogu (Kosovo), Marko Oršolić (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Vjeran Pavlaković (Croatia) and Ana Trbović (Serbia).
The scientists who gathered in Salzburg represented a cross-section of different professions from the countries of the former Yugoslavia, united in the common goal of promoting dialogue and reconciliation in a region that was still suffering from the consequences of the wars of the 1990s.
At this meeting, the proposal to create a Center for History, Democracy and Reconciliation under the auspices of IHJR was discussed.
The CHDR would serve as a gathering place for experts, organizations and non-governmental organizations in the region. Those gathered would work on issues related to confronting the past , reconciliation , promoting civil society , democratization and the study of history freed from the chauvinism that marked the 1990s.