About 40 young people gathered for the fifth Peace Festival, organized by the Post-Conflict Research Center (PCRC) to discuss and learn about peacebuilding through inclusive memorialization, art, and activities designed to promote critical thinking and respect for multiculturalism in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
Three decades after the violent conflicts that claimed thousands of lives and profoundly shaped those who survived, a central question remains across the Western Balkans: how can the voices, experiences, and needs of those most affected be placed at the center of policy and societal action?
Identity-based violence and its causes continue to be a widespread issue throughout the Western Balkans, even thirty years after the end of the wars in the 1990s.
On March 3 and 4, 2026, representatives of 25 civil society and international organizations converged on Europe House in Podgorica, Montenegro, for the inaugural Western Balkans Peace Forum (WBPF), organized by the Post-Conflict Research Center (PCRC) with its partners.
While regional politicians are increasingly embracing nationalist rhetoric and deepening divisions, young people from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia are takin a different approach - one based on daily collaboration, solidarity, and learning.
Despite the divisions, war narratives and burdens of the 1990s, young people in the region are finding ways to build bridges and create common spaces to build a better society.