Building Democratic Participation in the City of Mostar

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s aspiration to enhance governance at all levels is supported by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe in the framework of the project “Building democratic participation in the City of Mostar”, as part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina 2018-2021. Following a decade where Mostar citizens could not exercise their fundamental right to vote and stand in local elections, the aim of the project is to create opportunities for citizens to engage in deliberative processes and participate in local decision making, with the ultimate goal of restoring citizen’s confidence and trust in public authorities. A tailored methodology of deliberative democracy through mini-publics (a term coined by scholars/experts used in relation with deliberative democracy to define an institution in which a diverse body of citizens is selected randomly to reason together about an issue of public concern) will provide opportunities for dialogue among the citizens of Mostar, and with the local decision-makers. The project also seeks to develop the skills and knowledge of local stakeholders on democratic approaches.

The project is rooted in the work of the Reflection Group on Mostar, established in 2017 with the goal of proposing a sustainable solution for restoring democracy in the City, and follows on the Recommendation 442 (2019) on local and regional democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in the case Baralija v. Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Website:

https://www.coe.int/en/web/congress/bosnia-and-herzegovina 

https://www.coe.int/en/web/sarajevo

Contacts:

Marité MORAS, Head of Unit - Co-operation Activities, marite.moras@coe.int;

Natalija MILOVIC, Project Officer, natalija.milovic@coe.int;

Damjan JUGOVIC, Project Officer, damjan.jugovic@coe.int;