The worsening political situation in the world, the triumph of right-wing ideologies in Europe and the region, their influence on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the positioning of non-governmental organizations as “agents of foreign influence”, the collapse of civil society and the rise of tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Politics is muddying the waters due to its incoherent interests, and citizens are suffering. Because one cannot live off the inflammatory rhetoric of secession, referendums, and insulting others.
We must not allow politics, religion and social networks to influence our thinking. We want to preserve what we have built over the past 30 years and show that political games do not affect women – this was stated in Bratunac and Livno.
“We have far less peace, it seems to us, than in 1995, when the war had just ended. We in the non-governmental sector have recognized this through, perhaps, the most hate speech, which is becoming increasingly prominent,” warns Željana Pjevalica, executive director of the Women’s Association “Priroda”, Bratunac.
“Coexistence and peace are very important. Everyone who survived the war knows the value of peace. Peace is the most precious thing that a society can have”, says Edisa Demić, director of the Association for Education and Development “Dignitet”, Mostar.
And every citizen can contribute to peace and cooperation.
“By reducing our prejudices, stereotypes and, of course, contacts that will show my true identity, your true identity, and then together we will see that we have our own identities, but that we are very similar and that we are good people and that we can feel empathy and love for each other”, points out Jasminka Borković, president of the Women’s Association “Li-Woman”, Livno.
And since the synthesis of the media, religious leaders and politicians is a potential obstruction to peace, it is not surprising that the main issue of these meetings was – what they are doing to us again.
“The idea of our politicians is that nothing changes, that the most important thing is not to do anything that brings Bosnia and Herzegovina closer to the European Union, but to develop a strategy that nothing can be done, because as long as you develop that strategy, they will remain in power,” concludes Nerzuk Ćurak, a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Sarajevo.
Therefore, the project leaders from Bratunac and Livno call on citizens to critically observe the influences that come from everyday politics and their misuse of religion and nation. To think more seriously about their own role in building a community and peace within it, to not allow themselves to be instrumentalized for everyday political purposes and imposed by enemies who are not enemies.