Donor: Swedish International Agency for Development Cooperation (Sida)
Duration of the project: January – December 1998
Although transition occurs mostly in the economic field, the Belgrade Centre was always aware that there is no transition without comprehensive transformation of the society. Contemporary democracy, which is interdependent with market economy, includes respect for human rights. Cultural rights, comprehended either as individual or as group rights, are an unavoidable element of respect for human rights.The aims of this research project was to provide for: more precise definition of the right to cultural identity, which was placed in legal and sociological relation with ethnic or political identity, aiming at replacement of ethnonationalism with ethnic and cultural pluralism; balance of individual right to cultural determination and right to cultural community and expression of group cultural rights; possibility of expression of individual and group cultural rights, not only for their own sake, but also for the purpose of more precise and tolerant definition and implementation of political rights. The results of this multidisciplinary project were: analyses of legislation and legal practice concerning standard-setting and protection of individual and group cultural rights in former Yugoslavia, especially in FR of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro); on the social-psychological level, relations between individual and group cultural identity versus ethnic and political identity were examined.
Four workshops in multiethnic environments (Vojvodina and Sandžak) were organized aiming at collecting information about the (clear) distinction in perception of cultural and political rights. Workshops were organised in multiethnic environments in order to make a clear distinction in the perception of cultural and political rights. At the same time, these workshops were educational for activists and members of human rights NGOs. Workshops took place in: Ada (21 March 1998), Novi Pazar (9 May 1998), Dimitrovgrad (16 May 1998) and Novi Sad (30 May 1998).
The culmination of the project on the cultural rights was an international conference, held in Belgrade from 22 – 24 November 1998. This conference was meant to evaluate the results of the project and to present the general overview on the situation of cultural rights. Five international experts and thirty-eight participants from FRY attended it. The speakers were Dr. Aleksandar Molnar, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade: Attitudes of Citizens in Yugoslavia Towards Cultural Rights – Preliminary Results of a Survey; Prof. Dejan Jan~a, University of Novi Sad Law School: Position of Cultural Rights in the Structure of Human Rights; Prof. Natan Lerner, Interdisciplinary Centre, Herzlia, Tel Aviv: Cultural Rights as Collective Rights; Prof. Tibor Varady, Central European University, Hungary: Group-sensitive Cultural Rights – Dilemmas and Their Legal Regulations; Dr. Elizabeth Cowie, University of Kent in Canter¬bury: Preserving Cultural Rights and Right to Cultural Work; Prof. Glen Bowman, University of Kent in Canter¬bury, Great Britain: Xenophobia and Cultural Rights; Branislav Milinkovi}, Institute of International Politics and Economy, Belgrade: Hate-Speech and Cultural Rights in the Balkans; Prof. Jan-Louis Serfontein, University of Witwatersrand School of Law, South Africa : Cultural Rights under the New Constitution of South Africa; Prof. Vojin Dimitrijevi}, Belgrade Centre for Human Rights: Old and New Minorities after the Collapse of ’Really Existing Socialism’,
Since no one in Yugoslavia had studied cultural rights in a systematic way, the Centre held a series of seminars in several towns in Serbia and Montenegro. on cultural rights with the aim of acquainting their participants with the concept and content of cultural rights, international standards and domestic regulations in that area. The following educational workshops/seminars for NGOs were held in:
- Cultural Rights, Kotor, 5 September 1998
- Cultural Rights, Zrenjanin, 26 September 1998
- Cultural Rights, Belgrade, 17 October 1998
Before the seminar the participants were presented with a book published by the Centre “Kulturna prava“ (“Cultural Rights”). This was an opportunity to test the results of this year-long research project.
