MINELRES: ECMI Newsletter No. 18 (September 2002)
MINELRES moderator
[email protected]
Fri Sep 27 20:22:01 2002
Original sender: William McKinney <[email protected]>
ECMI Newsletter No. 18,
September 2002
Dear Subscriber,
Welcome to the eighteenth issue of the ECMI
Newsletter, and thank you for your interest.
TOPICS
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1. Activities
2. Upcoming ECMI Conferences and Activities
3. New ECMI Publications
4. New Website for ECMI Kosova/o Civil Society Project
5. New acquisitions in the ECMI Library
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1. Activities
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First European Consultation on Ombudspeople on National Minority Issues,
Kompanietor, September 4.
The purpose of the conference was to provide a forum for European
Ombudsmen-and related institutions to discuss experiences and to
exchange information about their activities and work, in particular
with
focus on minority issues. The gathering of these European
Ombuds-institutions working in the field of minority issues was the
first meeting of its kind in Europe. The participants included
ombudspeople from the Balkan region, the Baltic States, Russia and
Kaliningrad, as well as from Scandinavia. Ms Renate Schnack,
Schleswig-Holstein Commissioner of the Minister President of Minority
Affairs also participated. Further, representatives of the OSCE, the
European Commission and Council of Europe were present. A report on the
conference will be prepared, and made public at a later stage.
Consultative Meeting of Institutions Addressing Minority Issues in
Europe, Kompanietor, September 5.
The European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI), in consultation with the
Office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, held a
conference for international organizations involved in the field of
minority issues. The meeting brought together the intergovernmental
organizations in the field in order to facilitate an exchange of
experiences, and to discuss the future foci of work in the area of
minority issues, including a possible closer collaboration between the
organizations. The participants of this meeting included representatives
from the European Commission, the Council of Europe, the United Nations,
OSCE, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, the the
European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, Commissioner of the
Council of Baltic Sear States, and others. A report on the conference
will be prepared, and made public at a later stage.
Annual Meeting of the "ECMI NGO Network for the Improvement of
Interethnic Relations in the Republic of Macedonia", Ohrid, Macedonia,
September 20-21.
http://www.ecmi.doc/events.html
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2. Upcoming ECMI Conferences and Activities
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ECMI Kosova/o Civil Society Project, workshop of the Standing Technical
Working Group on Judicial Systems and Human Rights", Pristina, Kosova/o,
October 12.
ECMI Montenegro Negotiation and Capacity Building Project, Working Table
III: "Regional Economic Development",
Montenegro (tbc.)
http://www.ecmi.doc/events.html
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3. New ECMI Publications
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Please remember that all ECMI publications can be downloaded at:
http://www.ecmi.de/doc/public_list.html
ECMI Report #33
Poleshchuk, Vadim
"Legal Aspects of National Integration in Estonia and Latvia", Workshop
of the ECMI Project "Accession to the EU and National Integration in
Estonia and Latvia", 6-8 June 2002, Jurmala, Latvia. September 2002, 19
pp., appendix.
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4. New Website for ECMI Kosova/o Civil Society Project
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ECMI's Kosova/o Civil Society project has been implemented to promote
capacity building, interethnic dialogue, and interaction with the
emerging political structures in Kosova/o. The project has established a
standing forum representative of Kosova/o society which enhances
dialogue amongst Kosovars across ethnic and party lines. Through routine
cooperation between local non-governmental organizations, oocal
independent experts, and Kosova/o political parties, mechanisms are
established which allow for critical and active civic participation in
the development of Kosova/o institutions.
This project is supported by the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (Secretariat for Peace and Stability / FRESTA), the German
Foreign Ministry (Stability Pact Fund) and the Swedish Foreign Ministry.
ECMI gratefully acknowledges their generous support.
http://www.ecmikos.org/
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5. New acquisitions in the ECMI Library
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Williams, Paul R. and Michael P. Scharf. Peace with Justice? War Crimes
and Accountability in the former Yugoslavia. Lanham: Rowman &
Littlefield, 2002.
In the late 1980s, Yugoslavia began its disintegration, igniting more
than a decade of ethnic fighting marked by systematic war crimes, crimes
against humanity, and acts of genocide committed in Croatia, Bosnia and
Kosovo. In total, close to half a million civilians would be killed, and
four million driven from their homes as a result of Slobodan Milosevic's
reliance on ethno-nationalism and ethnic cleansing as tools for
accumulating and retaining political power in order to pursue his dream
of a greater Serbia. To the major powers and the United Nations
organization, the effort to halt atrocities and restore peace to this
troubled part of the world would constitute the last great foreign
policy challenge of the twentieth century.
This study examines and explores the role of the norms and institutions
of justice in the process of peace-building during this time of conflict
in the former Yugoslavia. The specific task of this study is to evaluate
the extent to whcih the norms and institutions of justice have played
and continue to play a role in the peace-building process in the former
Yugoslavia, and to assess the extent to which the approach of
accountability conflicts with and/or serves concomitantly with other
normative approaches such as accomodation, economic inducement, and the
use of force. Based on this evaluation and assessment, the study seeks
to promote an understanding of the relationship between the approach of
accountability and other relevant approaches so they may be properly
balanced by diplomats and foreign policy agents in their future attempts
to build peace out of conflict.
http://ecmidb.aboutmedia.de/
We hope you have enjoyed this eighteenth issue of the ECMI newsletter,
and we hope 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]