Women's Civil Scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The conference was organized by the Woman and Society Research, Policy and Advocacy Center, the newly established institutional partner of NWP in Bosnia and Herzegovina that continues the legacy of the former women's program at the Open Society Fund-Bosnia. The organization itself was officially launched during the event.

Objectives of the conference:

• to identify the key issues, problems, and related policies for women today in Bosnia and Herzegovina;
• to define the strategic priorities for Bosnian women and urgent actions that the women's civil scene there needs to undertake;
• to sensitize the general public towards gender issues;
• to open a dialogue on gender issues with representatives of key institutions about future policies to promote women's human rights;
• to bring to the intellectual/activist women's scene in Bosnia new voices of young girls and women, many of whom are gathered around the Woman and Society Center.

Panels and workshops of the conference addressed the issue of gender stereotypes in the following fields: education, language, history, religion, public policy, media, minority issues, law and economy.

Center projects that were launched during the conference:

• Strategic priorities of the women's movement in Bosnia;
• Broad Action Research: Women and local elections 2004;
• National monitoring of violence against women;
• Analyses of the new draft laws and their harmonization with gender equality law: A case study of the draft family law.

Conference target audience:

• the general public;
• national and local institutions and authorities that create and implement policies and procedures that influence gender issues;
• women's non-governmental organizations (to initiate self-reflection on their role and on women's civil scene in general, its strengths and weaknesses);
• international organizations, potential sponsors, funders and donors.

Conference participants:

• NGOs—signatories of the Action Platform and other representatives from the NGO sector, alliances, coalitions;
• distinguished individuals whose theoretical and practical work address women's/gender issues in Bosnia;
• academic (pro)feminist-oriented theoreticians;
• media representatives, especially women from the media;
• representatives of the government and state (institutional) gender mechanisms at all levels;
• representatives of international organizations and international donor organizations.