Panel

• Dino Dupanović, MA, phd student, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo
  Srebrenica: The Paradigm of Bosniak Suffering
• Ajna Jusić, NGO Zaboravljena djeca rata, Sarajevo
  The forgotten children of war in today’s BiH
• Nataša Govedarica, MA, forumZFD, Belgrade
  The socially engaged theatre as a platform for dealing with the past
• Emina Haye, MA, HU Berlin / Thomas Schad, PhD, project „Bosnia in Berlin“, Berlin
  The Bosnian War and Post-war in German Postmigrant Memory Culture

Moderation

• Dr. Heike Karge, Researcher at the Chair of History of Southeast and Eastern Europe, University of Regensburg / Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Southeast Europe Association

Topic

A few days before taking office as the new High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt appealed to the public at the end of July 2021 to "put the focus on the young generation [in Bosnia and Herzegovina], the EU, the High Representative and everyone together. Because relying only on the graying gentlemen will not be enough. I bet on the young generation!" 

In 2022, 30 years will have passed since the beginning of the bloody war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which cost 100,000 people their lives and many more their homes. During this time, the generation Schmidt is talking about has grown up: it is decidedly the generation that experienced the war as a child or not at all. A generation that was not politically mature either at the beginning of the war or at its end in 1995 because of its young age, a generation that did not fight the war itself. The fact that they nevertheless bear the burden of the war and the long post-war period in a country that is still politically and ethnically divided today is made clear not only by their individual biographies, but also by their private, social, political or academic commitment to working towards a democratic, open and pluralistic Bosnian-Herzegovinian society. 

So what opportunities are associated with the work of this generation, which was no longer actively involved in the war? What support does it need from home and abroad to realize its own hopes and the expectations of the international community? What can we do to support this process and strengthen the young generation in its commitment? 

The symposium aims to bring representatives of this young generation from Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as those with family roots in this country, into conversation with each other and with the audience.