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Post-Yugoslav Peace Academy

The Post-Yugoslav Peace Academy (PYPA) program was created in 2007 as a result of shared experience-based insights from four organizations working in the field of reconciliation and peacebuilding in the region: Mennonite Central Committee, Sarajevo; Centre for Non-violent Action, Sarajevo/Belgrade; Nansen Dialogue Center, Sarajevo; and TERCA, Sarajevo. 

PYPA was conceived to address a number of challenges which practitioners in the field have been facing throughout the region:

  • education for peacebuilding practitioners is insufficient in providing practitioners with theoretical foundations and reflexive tools; 
  • immense theoretical production in the field has been circulating in academic circles and has not been communicated to practitioners; 
  • and cooperation among practitioners within countries and in the region is very limited and mainly donor-driven. 

In September 2010, to ensure the long-term sustainability of the PYPA, the Peace Academy Foundation was established as a separate and legally-registered organization. From this date, the PYPA has been one the main PAF's activities, providing education on peacebuilding to persons from across the former Yugoslavia who are active in the fields of peacebuilding, dealing with the past, and human rights' protection. This event is tailored for activists, students, researchers, theoreticians, journalists and all others whose focus is peace work.

Our basic intention is to contribute to the advancement of peacebuilding practices and theory in the Post-Yugoslav Countries and offer those who deal with peacebuilding the opportunity to:

  • Critically evaluate and reflect on practices and models applied to date in the peacebuilding field regarding the region of former Yugoslavia and beyond;
  • Become introduced to new theories and practices of peacebuilding from different parts of the world.

PYPA aims to empower the participants with advanced knowledge and skills for strategic and transformative work, both practical and theoretical, in the field of peacebuilding.

PAF has organized to date four PYPA's for more than 210 peacebuilding actors, NGO activists, theoreticians, journalists and others from the region and beyond. During those four summer schools, 12 courses with unique curricula on peacebuilding that combine activist and academic approaches in peacebuilding have been delivered by 14 renowned instructors from the region and beyond. As a product of the four PYMA's, more than 100 essays have been written by participants and published as a final product of the summer school.  These publications hvae enriched locally-produced peacebuilding literature in the region.

Who are we?

The Peace Academy Foundation (PAF) is an independent non-partisan and non-profit organization, which acts in the spirit of democracy, openness, tolerance and solidarity. 

PAF is located in Sarajevo and registered as a foundation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, PAF's area of engagement also includes the countries which emerged after the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (hereafter referred to as the region). It is an area in which (violent) conflicts and peacebuilding efforts are deeply intertwined due to cultural, historical, economic and political reasons.

Field of Work

PAF is engaged in the field of peacebuilding. Peacebuilding is a complex set of interlinked processes and activities “involving investments and materials, architectural design and coordination of labor, laying a foundation, and detailed finish work, as well as continuing maintenance.”  All components of peacebuilding work towards peace which is conceived as “justice and equity for all as the basis for living together in harmony and freedom from violence.” 

In more practical terms PAF sees peacebuilding as increasing the capacities of people and institutions to manage diversity, transform conflicts and avoid structural violence by investigating and analyzing the causes of war, opening perspectives and reestablishing interrupted and destroyed relationships among people and between the ethnic groups of the region. In this regard the work of PAF is interdisciplinary and includes a number of areas of engagement such as culture, identity, ethnicity, religion, politics, nation building, gender, marginalized groups, etc. 

PAF does not divide peacebuilders into “theoreticians” and “practitioners” on the basis of the type of their engagement or work environment, be it university, academic or NGO. It is crucial that their peacebuilding work is visible and effective in public. Only then, are peacebuiders treated as “practitioners.”  If their work is performed only within a scholarly community and is not visible in public, they are treated as “theoreticians”.

Key achievements

Through various activities implemented since 2007, PAF achieved the following:

  • Four 10-day summer schools - Post-Yugoslav Peace Academy (PYPA) - involving more than 210 peacebuilding actors, NGO activists, theoreticians, journalists and others from the region and beyond;
  • 12 courses with unique curricula on peacebuilding that combine activist and academic approaches to peacebuilding delivered by 14 renowned instructors from the region and beyond;
  • More than 100 essays written by participants and published as final products of Summer Academies which have enriched locally-produced peacebuilding literature in the region;
  • Establishing PAX Library and publishing its first translation, increasing the amount of peacebuilding literature available in local languages;
  • A unique online platform using Moodle software which serves as an effective, economical and easy channel for communication and exchange of information between peacebuilding actors;
  • Newsletters on PYPA-related issues have been disseminated by e-mail and Internet.

In order to be transparent as well as to provide current information about activities, projects and initiatives to our donors, partner organizations, media sponsors, participants and peacebuilding practitioners in general, the Peace Academy Foundation will post it's annual reports here: 

Annual Report for 2008

Annual Report for 2009

Annual Report for 2010

Annual Report for 2011

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Peace Academy Board

Nejra Nuna Čengić gained a PhD in the Anthropology of Everyday Life from AMEU-ISH Ljubljana/Maribor, Slovenia, focused on the relationship between war violence and speech. Nejra has over 20 years of working experience in NGOs, IGOs and the academy in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). From 2007/2008 onwards she has taught the postgraduate course Life Stories and Dialogues at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies at the University of Sarajevo, where she also gained most of her professional experience. She made a significant contribution to the establishment of the Gender Studies Programme at the University of Sarajevo. Her main research interests focus on memory, speech, violence, gender and work. She is currently conducting a research project on the influence of international intervention on the reconfiguration of labour in BiH.

Azra Ibrahimović is a psychologist and Islamic theologian and works at the Nahl Education and Research Center as Head of Psychological Counseling office. She is an activist in the regional Believers for Peace initiative. She is engaged as a peace activist and participant in inter-religious dialogue projects in the Western Balkan countries and as a trainer of non-violent communication.

Amela Puljek-Shank holds a Master’s Degree in Conflict Transformation from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University. She co-wrote the chapters “Journey of Healing” in Positive Approaches to Peacebuilding: A Resource for Innovators (2003) and “The Contribution of Trauma Healing to Peacebuilding in Southeast Europe” in Peacebuilding in Traumatized Societies (2007). She also wrote the chapter “Trauma and Reconciliation” in 20 Pieces of Encouragement for Awakening and Change (2007). She worked as a facilitator with the Seeds of Peace Program for youth from deeply divided societies from the Middle East, Asia, and Balkans. Amela taught in the field of trauma healing and recovery at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute at Eastern Mennonite University. As Mennonite Central Committee Representative for Southeast Europe and later East Europe from 2002 until 2012, she designed and led peacebuilding and trauma healing programs as a trainer while developing innovative training aids for understanding key concepts related to trauma. Later as Mennonite Central Committee’s Area Director for Europe and Middle East from 2012 until 2019 she was responsible for program implantations, organizational policies that foster staff resilience and worker care in addition to being frequently involved in responding to crisis situations. Currently she is pursuing further studies in the field of peacebuilding that focuses on resilience, healing, and intercultural competence.

Azra Smailkadic-Brkic was born and raised in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The war in Bosnia and its aftermath fostered her interests in genocide prevention, conflict management, and peace building. She earned a Master’s Degree in Human Rights from the University of Sarajevo and University of Bologna. At the Inter-University Center of Dubrovnik and the University of Sarajevo, she worked as the Program Coordinator of the Master’s-level course "War Crimes, Genocide and Memories," which was the first of its kind in Southeast Europe. She served as a consultant for the PBS/WNET documentary "Women, War and Peace in Bosnia" which was the first major television initiative to focus on the strategic role of gender in modern conflict. In 2010 Azra has won fellowship from Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights (Human Rights Advocates Program). She envisions a world free from all forms of violence, stereotypes and discrimination.

Director

Dr. Randall Puljek-Shank is a peacebuilding practitioner and political scientist based in Sarajevo. He designed and facilitated exchanges for selected government and NGO participants from the Ukraine to learn from the experience of Bosnian practitioners and led a series of trainings in the Ukraine on ‘Do no harm’ approaches. He has supported curriculum creation and implementation of the MA in Interreligious Studies and Peacebuilding, a collaborative degree between Islamic, Catholic and Orthodox schools of theology. At the PeaceNexus Foundation he guideed the organizational development of PeaceNexus partners and encouraged inclusive dialogue with businesses. His recent consultant engagements include work on the Peace and Development Assessment for the United Nations Country Team in BiH, working as team lead of a Country Program Review for Mennonite Central Committee Colombia and lead facilitator for CSO strategic consultation regarding social cohesion.

Recent publications:

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