ECMI Activities Update No. 6, 5 April 2001
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Subject: ECMI Activities Update No. 6, 5 April 2001
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: William McKinney <[email protected]>
ECMI Activities Update No. 6, 5 April 2001
ECMI Activities Update No. 6,
5 April 2001
Dear Subscriber,
Welcome to the sixth issue of the ECMI Activities Update, and thank
you for your interest.
TOPICS
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1. New ECMI Staff
2. Activities
3. New ECMI Publications
4. Other publications by ECMI staff
5. Current ECMI projects
6. Redesign of ECMI website
7. ECMI Online Library Catalogue
8. Starting point for links on Conflict
Management, Prevention and Resolution
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1. New ECMI Staff
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ECMI is delighted to welcome 4 new staff members. Graham Holliday
joined the ECMI in January 2001 as Research Associate and Balkan
Projects Coordinator. He holds an MA in Politics from the University
of Glasgow and an M.Phil in International Relations from the
University of Cambridge. Marita Lampe joined the ECMI in February 2001
as the Centre's Publications Officer. She holds an MA in French and
English Philology. Alexander Natusch joined the ECMI in February 2001,
assisting in administrative matters. He completed a BA as Culture and
Language Mediator at the University of Southern Denmark and spent one
month of his studies at Queens University of Belfast, Northern
Ireland. He is a member of the Danish minority in Germany. Eva Maria
Christensen joined ECMI in April 2001, as the Centre's new Project
Assistant.
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2. Activities
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ECMI Baltic Conference on the "Accession to the EU and National
Integration in Estonia and Latvia,"
Toender, Denmark, 7-10 December, 2000.
First Meeting of the "NGO Roundtable on Interethnic Relations in FYR
of Macedonia," ECMI, Flensburg. Organised by ECMI and funded by the
Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Secretariat for Peace and
Stability-FRESTA) and the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, 11-13 December
2000.
http://www.ecmi.de/activities/schedule2000.htm
ECMI Lecture "Israel's Ethnic Democracy and the Israeli-Palestinian
Conflict," by Prof. Smooha, Professor of Sociology, University of
Haifa, Israel, 31 January 2001.
Carnegie Workshop in collaboration withCambridge University:
"Resolving Self-Determination Disputes Through Complex Power-Sharing
Arrangements," 9-10 February 2001.
Standing Technical Working Group Meeting,
Pristina, Kosovo, 15-18 March 2001.
http://www.ecmi.de/activities/schedule.2001.htm
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3. New Publications
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Please remember that all ECMI publications can be ordered and/or
downloaded from the ECMI web site at:
http://www.ecmi.de/publications/working_papers_reports.htm
ECMI Report #6
Grin, Francois and Boerries, Kuzmany:
Evaluating Policy Measures for Minority Language in Europe: Towards
effective, cost-effective and democratic implementation.
Flensburg, Germany, 23 to 24 June 2000.
Flensburg: European Centre for Minority Issues, October 2000, 66 pp.,
appendix.
ECMI Report #7
Daftary, Farimah:
NGO Roundtable on Inter-Ethnic Relations in the FYR of Macedonia.
First Meeting,
Flensburg, Germany, 10-13 December 2000.
Flensburg: European Centre for Minority Issues, January 2001, 79 pp.,
appendix.
SUMMARY
This meeting was attended by over 20 local NGOs from Skopje and other
parts of the country working mainly in the areas of human rights,
civil society and conflict resolution; women's issues; and the media.
At the same time, most ethnic communities living in the country were
represented (Albanian, Bosnian, Macedonian, Roma, Serb, Turkish and
Vlach). In addition, a representative from the OSCE and the Council of
Europe as well as eight international experts on minority issues and
networking in the areas of human and minority rights were invited.
This was the first of a series of events within a larger ECMI project
entitled "NGO Roundtable on Inter-Ethnic Relations in the FYR of
Macedonia." The overall aim of this project is to foster constructive
discussion between Macedonian NGOs on the question of inter-ethnic
relations in the country and to promote dialogue and cooperation on
main issues of concern through the establishment of a forum for
regular consultation, communication and cooperation. By drawing on
positive experience and best practice, and also by building an
atmosphere of mutual trust, this initiative seeks to encourage the
generation of joint projects and other forms of cooperation between
Macedonian NGOs with similar interests with a view to preventing
conflict and building a tolerant, multi-ethnic Macedonian society
based on the principle of democratic citizenship.
ECMI Report #8
Poleschchuk, Vadim:
Accession to the European Union and National Integration in Estonia
and Latvia. Toender, Denmark, 7-10 December 2000.
SUMMARY
The aim of this seminar was to focus on different aspects of national
integration in Estonia and Latvia, taking into account the future
perspectives of "Euro-integration." It therefore touched upon issues
of minority education, linguistic policies, the role of NGOs, and
current developments in minority-related legislation. In recent years,
the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) has organised several
meetings and seminars dedicated to the problems of national
integration in Estonia. This seminar in December 2000 was the start of
a series of events in the framework of a special project planned for
the period 2000-2002 devoted to problems of national integration in
Estonia and Latvia. It seeks to provide theoretical input into policy
deliberations aimed at overcoming ethnic divisions within these
societies. The ECMI invited 35 participants, representing
international organisations, national and local governments, academic
institutions, NGOs and minority organisations from Estonia and Latvia
to attend this seminar.
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4. Other publications by ECMI staff
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Daftary, Farimah and Kinga Gal. "Novy zakon o slovenskom jazyku:
Vnutorna alebo vonkasjsia politika?" (excerpt from ECMI Working Paper
#8 "The New Slovak Language Law: Internal or Externa Politics?"), OS -
Forum Obcianskej Spolecnosti, No. 2 (February 2001).
Holliday, Graham. Book reviews for INCORE Ethnic Conflict Research
Digest and for the journal International Affairs (forthcoming).
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5. Current ECMI Projects
-----------------------------------
http://www.ecmi.de/activities/ongoing_projects.htm
The European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) is presently engaged in
a great number of highly ambitious and promising projects. ECMI's
active involvement in constructive conflict management is demonstrated
in projects ranging from the Baltic republics to the Balkan states of
South Eastern Europe. For more detailed information on all current
ECMI projects please refer to the web address above.
The restoration of peace and stability in the Balkans has become one
of the key occupations of European foreign policy. While this aim will
retain a high priority, one can however already observe a lessening of
interest and involvement by the international community in this
region.Less than two years after the dramatic events that culminated
in NATO's military campaign against the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, there is talk of donor fatigue and a number of
international programmes are in danger of being wound down. There is a
growing sense that the citizens of the Balkan states will need to take
their destiny into their own hands and generate the kinds of
democratic and ethnically inclusive structures that will assist in
maintaining stability in the longer term. Broad civil society
initiatives, supported by the Stability Pact for South East Europe and
other sources of funding, now need to be filled with life. Concrete
projects need to be generated that explicitly enhance multi-ethnic
cooperation and foster civic responsibility. And, crucially, ownership
of these projects must lie with local civil society groups, to ensure
that these new patterns of practice take root in the respective
societies.
The European Centre for Minority Issues, a German-Danish
action-oriented centre of expertise in relation to ethno-political
conflict and its resolution, has therefore launched a multi-layered
civil society programme on the Balkans. This initiative covers at
present Kosovo, the FYR and Bosnia-Herzegovina. A key element is close
cooperation with local partners whose ownership of these projects
increases over time.
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6. Redesign of ECMI web site
-----------------------------------
The ECMI web site at http://www.ecmi.de is undergoing a redesign to
ensure that our users will be able to find what they require more
quickly and easily, and so that administration of the site by ECMI
staff will be simpler. We will let you know in the newsletter when
this has taken place.
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7. ECMI Online Library Catalogue
-------------------------------------
The ECMI Online Library Catalogue is down due to technical
difficulties. We apologize for this inconvenience; the ECMI IT staff
is working hard to rectify the problem. We will let you know in the
newsletter when the Online Library Catalogue is online again.
-----------------------------------
8. Starting point for links on
Conflict Management, Prevention and
Resolution
-----------------------------------
"Internet Resources on Conflict
Management, Prevention and Resolution,"
Prepared by Anne O'Toole Salinas (1998)
http://www.dec.org/pdf_docs/PNACH194.pdf
"Current conflict resolution Internet resources provide additional
sources for academic information; facilitate understanding and
communication between warring parties; disseminate information so that
the international community can respond more quickly and with fuller
understanding to the conflict, and... provide forums for practitioners
to share and exchange information and experiences and collaborate with
others in the field... What needs to be assessed now is whether these
websites serve the purpose they are intended to serve and how else the
Internet could be used to further the overall goals of conflict
resolution, prevention and manbagement. A user-oriented assessment
might find that more integration and coordination of Internet
resources, perhaps under a common "umbrella" site like ReliefWeb,
could lead to a more efficient and effective facilitation of
information dissemination and exchange."
We hope you enjoyed this sixth issue of the ECMI Activities update,
and we hope that you will remember to tell interested colleagues about
it.
If you have any comments or suggestions for improvement of this
newsletter, please contact William McKinney at: [email protected]
--
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