Behind a name  

It wasn’t until graduate school that my dad came to know of the American Civil War to be named as such. You see, it had always been referenced as the War of Northern Aggression for him growing up in 1970s Texas. Since we are social animals, we are informed by what’s around us, we learn from our environment. This type of historical branding and rebranding my dad encountered early in this life is still at play around the world, and has far reaching consequences (Rosa et al., 2018). 

Social Memory  

This type of group remembrance is known as social memory. Social memories help indicate what communities people belong to based on who else shares those memories (Rosa et al., 2018). In post-conflict societies it’s particularly important to look at which social memories are dominant, “[to see] the way they negotiate their pasts, presents, and futures: what they choose to collectively remember, forget, obliterate, or deny.” (Fridman, 2014). From this we can understand and monitor post-war transformation. In doing so, the hope is to establish truth in social memories as a foundation for sustainable peace. These dynamics are playing out as we speak in the Balkans. Let’s take a closer look at one country: Serbia. 

Implications in Serbia

I would be doing an injustice to the history and people of the region to try and sum up the dissolution of former Yugoslavia and the proceeding wars of the 1990s in this short piece (if you’re wanting pause and read up on the region’s history, Rick Steves’ travel guide has a decent overview). It’s important to know that,

“Out of a decade of wars, of which at least a portion was undeniably due to Serbian aggression, the committee comprising professionals and politicians decided to promote the memory of Serbian victimhood during the 1999 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bombing as if it were the central motive of the wars in the 1990s.” (Fridman, 2014) 

This is not in any way to discount the experiences of those affected by the NATO bombing in 1999. There were many real, harmful consequences. However, there is no other mention of the 1990s conflict in Serbian textbooks. If anything is mentioned, the events are biased towards Serbia, or simply not factual. It’s worth stating that while the present day-to-day in Belgrade overall feels vibrant, safe, and mundane in the best sense of the word, the current government is leaning more into nationalistic rhetoric (Regalbuto & Žilić). So, let’s dive into how one organization in Belgrade, Serbia is leading its young people towards transitional justice and sustainable peace through education and reconstructing social memories in the Balkans.

Youth Initiative for Human Rights  

This is where the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) comes in. YIHR was founded by a 19 year-old during the early 2000s after the wars had settled and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was in full swing. The sentiment in Serbia was, ‘don’t talk about the wars, this didn’t happen.’ Since none of this information was being covered in formal educationThe founder of YIHR wanted to work with youth to promote and educate them on these topics, to shift their attitudes. I spoke with Belgrade based YIHR program manager, Maja Žilić. Maja explained that information in formal education today is getting worse (Regalbuto & Žilić), so the work of YIHR is all the more important 20 years later.  

“[non-governmental] voices… are still engaged in the struggle over the creation of Serbia’s collective memory and future… The main battle today is a battle of interpretation … for the definitions of the wars, of what happened.” (Fridman, 2011)

Maja herself was skeptical about YIHR’s mission at first, thinking they were feeding her more propaganda. She was a baby during the conflict, so she doesn’t have first hand memories to draw from. Maja explained how her parents were affected by the trauma of the wars. They passed on specific beliefs to her, mainly that of Serbian victimhood. She didn’t have the opportunity to learn about the conflicts from anywhere but her parents since schools did not teach about it. 

Looking Forward 

Youth born in the 2000s didn’t live through the wars, but are still affected by the past. That is why YIHR is focused on transitional justice. Maja sees this as a bit of a tipping point. YIHR hopes to steer the region towards sustainable peace. 

One of YIHR’s largest programs, funded by the European Commission, gets young people from Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Croatia, and Bosnia together for a conference. They hold bilateral meetings of the countries that were engaged in conflict (ex: Bosnia – Croatia, Serbia – Kosovo, etc.). Students first pull information from their social and personal memories. Next, they look at more objective sources. Lastly, they collectively write a final version of the conflict, deciding together what information is vital. YIHR argues this is the most effective style of programming, which actively engages in peacebuilding through education. YIHR also hosts a network of activists and tries to collaborate with the Ministry of Education on projects, which is met mostly with silence. And so, the work towards sustainable peace continues. 

Sources 

• Fridman, O. (2011). ‘it was like fighting a war with our own people’: Anti-war activism in Serbia during the 1990s. Nationalities Papers, 39(4), 507–522. https://doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2011.579953   
• Fridman, O. (2014). Alternative calendars and memory work in Serbia: Anti-war activism after Milošević. Memory Studies, 8(2), 212–226. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698014558661
• Interview: Regalbuto, A., & Žilić, M. (2023, February 24). YIHR. personal. 
• Rosa, A., & Valsiner, J. (2018). Chapter 31. In The Cambridge Handbook of Sociocultural Psychology (pp. 625–644). essay, Cambridge University Press. 
• Understanding Yugoslavia | Rick Steves
• Youth Initiative for Human Rights

Promoting Peace 

The United Nations has put forth seventeen goals for sustainable development around the globe. In this blog I am focusing on Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG-16) – which aims to increase peace, justice, and strong institutions – and how education has a vital role in achieving and maintaining SDG-16. I will focus on education among young adults in either conflict, post-conflict, and fragile regions, and how we can harness specific outcomes from educational initiatives to develop SDG-16. In brief, how we can educate for sustainable peacebuilding. 

Let’s talk education and development  

Education is the process of transferring knowledge to others. The meat of this definition, however, comes from the purpose of education. I define this purpose as having a skilled, well informed public, so they can pass down knowledge to future generations and in turn build a better society for those to come. In this definition I am using a broad meaning of skilled to include social-emotional intelligence, hard skills like reading and writing, and the ability to think critically. As for a definition of development, there have been many debates as to where we should land. I would like to keep it simple with the definition of: improving infrastructures that make peoples’ lives better. 

I have one thing to note about education as we get going. For some, education has become synonymous with schooling. These are two separate things. As Barrón Pastor explains, the association of education and schooling happens through the process of institutionalization. He gives the anecdotal example of marriage, saying, “marriage is a form of institutionalization of love, but it would be a mistake to confuse love with marriage” (Barrón Pastor, 2015). Just as is the case of not equating love with marriage, we must not equate schooling with education. Education can be gained through many different means, formal or informal. This is especially important when speaking about developing nations, communities enduring conflict, or post-conflict societies where the best information may not be coming from formal schooling. 

SDG-16: The Peacemaker 

Currently, the world is experiencing the most violent conflict since World War II (Source). So, let’s take a look at what SDG-16 is all about. It is broken down into 12 targets. These targets may be more or less relevant to achieving SDG-16 depending on where you are and the dynamics at play in that area. The sweet spot for what I’m talking about in this blog is target 16.a, which aims to “strengthen relevant national institutions, including through international cooperation, for building capacity at all levels, in particular in developing countries, to prevent violence and combat terrorism and crime” (source). Targets are how a nation identifies what they’re trying to get better at. Next is how we can track that progress, or lack thereof. This is done through what are called indicators. Each target has one or more indicators. The indicator that goes along with target 16.a is the, “existence of independent national human rights institutions in compliance with the Paris Principles” (source). In other words, the presence of human rights institutions within a nation that work freely from government control, lead to improved peacebuilding outcomes. This shows a positive relationship between SDG-16 and education.

SDG-16 indicators can prove difficult to track. For example, if you’re trying to track governmental corruption there is a good chance that the government may not report this statistic accurately. Target 16.a can be more simple to track if human rights institutions do exist within the country, but as was previously stated, education does not only occur in formal classrooms. SDG-16 capacity building can be happening in communities without any formal tracking or reporting of this taking place. We do know, however, that “teaching SDG16-related issues is the most direct way to contribute towards SDG16. In terms of curricula, amongst the most-analysed contributions is peace and conflict studies, which is a common intervention in conflict-affected contexts” (source). This leads me to my next point. 

All Together Now 

Although SDG-16 is particularly pertinent in active conflict zones, there are still useful ways to move towards SDG-16 in post-conflict or fragile zones. This pulls in the concept of active versus passive peace. Passive peace is simply the lack of violence or war in a community, country, or region. Active peace goes a step further; it is building out positive community and relational ties to ensure deepening harmony and understanding. It is deeply tied to how a society runs, which in turn helps to ensure the longevity of peacetimes (Novell et al., 2015). This connects back to the SDG indicator. Independent human rights institutions are pivotal in getting accurate information to the public – a solid foundation of facts. Active peace and strengthening of SDG-16 can in part be completed by way of educational initiatives. Involving youth through education in this process will yield the most lasting effects. One framework (Novell et al., 2015) emphasizes the Four R’s in peacebuilding education: redistribution, recognition, representation, and reconciliation. 

Using something like the Four R’s, “students develop an aptitude for dialogue to participate positively in a society and show tolerance towards diverse… worldviews.” (source).  This creates a path forward from and through conflict. And so, we must look to education as a way to effectively move SDG-16 forward, to build sustainable peace. 

Sources:

• Barrón Pastor, J. C. (2015). Post-Development Theory: What is Education for. Education and International Development, 69-78.
• Goal 16 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs
• Higher education and sustainable development goal 16 in fragile and conflict-affected contexts | SpringerLink 
• Novelli, M., Cardozo, M. L., & Smith, A. (2015). A theoretical framework for analysing the contribution of education to sustainable peacebuilding: 4Rs in conflict-affected contexts. University Of Amsterdam, Available online: http://learningforpeace. unicef. org/partners/research‐consortium/research‐outputs.
• SDG Resources for Educators – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions