Tag: Belgrade

Move. Link. Engage.

Posted on by Milutin

The Belgrade Open School, together with the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society of Government of Serbia, organized the Third Annual Regional Conference ’’Move. Link. Engage – Rethinking Europe and Western Balkans’, on 18th and 19th of September in Belgrade. The Conference was supported by ’Europe for Citizens’ Program and Kingdom of Sweden. The goal of the Conference was to promote and encourage regional approach in solving shared problems and better cooperation among citizens and civil society in the European Integration Process.

At the main panel of the Conference, titled ’Western Balkans in Motion: Berlin Process Aftermath’, prominent speakers and participants stressed out the importance of the Berlin Process, which is recognized through shifting focus towards economic and social questions and contribution to European Integration Process of all states in the region. Participants of the session dedicated to the Civil Society Participation in European Integration Process came to the conclusion that civil society is the bridge between decision makers and the citizens, and that it is important to build alliances founded in European values and closely watch and follow the decisions that authorities make on behalf of citizens. Civil society organizations agreed that there would be no progress in the European Integration process without strong institutions and common values, and pointed out that European Integration Process should be founded in citizens’ participation in developing public policies, transparency and accountability.

During the conference, a regional workshop was organized, dedicated to project preparation within ’Europe for Citizens’ Program, as well as official diploma awarding ceremony for 24th generation of students of the ’Future studies’ Program of Belgrade Open School.

The Conference gathered more than 200 participants, numerous representatives of organizations from Serbia and the region, representatives of institutions and foundations, as well as representatives of the media, researches, activists and students. Milutin Milošević, the Executive Director, represented DPNSEE at the conference. That was a good opportunity to meet with peers from the civil society sector and representatives of authorities.

The “Competency Passport”

Posted on by Milutin

Representatives of the Drug Policy Network South East Europe and member organisation Re Generacija participated in presentation of the “Competency Passport” on 27 July 2017, in Belgrade. The project was presented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Office in Sarajevo, as part of their Open Regional Fund for South East Europe – Modernisation of Municipal Services. The “Competency Passport” is designed to increase adult employability by identifying informally acquired competencies, following the success the tool achieved in Germany and some other countries.

Appropriate skills for job seekers can often be as important in professional life as formal education. However, such skills often go unrecognized. The “Competency Passport” provides an instrument for systematically identifying and presenting a person’s competencies.

The “Competency Passport” has been modified and adapted to the Bosnian and Herzegovinian context and the first group of counsellors has been tested and certified and had numerous counselling services across the country.

Now, the GIZ Office in Sarajevo offers this tool to Serbia. They plan to establish working contacts with civil society organisations, invite 30 interested activists to pass the training for counsellors and support them in implementing the tool.

The tool could be used to prepare an activity to support drug users, especially those who are in the process of re-socialisation, to better understand their competences and be ready to present and use them.

Without Shift: Harm Reduction After Global Fund in Serbia

Posted on by Milutin

For three years, Serbia was not eligible for funding from the Global Fund, which resulted in the closure of harm reduction programs around the country. The movie, prepared by NGO Re Generation, gives a glimpse of the desperate situation faced by injecting drug users in Serbia, and also explores the consequences of the closure of needle exchange programs in Belgrade, whilst trying to assess the current situation in the country!

Serbia is at the crossroads of a number of heroin trafficking routes. It has a significant population of injecting drug users – 20,000 according to the official estimates. Thanks to grants from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, several harm reduction services were introduced during the first decade of this century. Approximately two thousand people enrolled in opiate substitution programs, and four needle exchange programs provided sterile equipment to injecting drug users. The prevalence of HIV among drug users was low, though access to harm reduction services was far from adequate – the best indicator of risk being the high prevalence of Hepatitis C infections.

The last grant from the Global Fund ended in June 2014. The Government made no commitment to continue funding the programs, and there are no other international donors available to step in and cover the harm reduction funding gap. This resulted in closing of all needle and syringe projects except one, which is operated by Association Prevent in Novi Sad. Three years later, the Government has changed but the programs are still out of focus when it comes to national funding!

 

What it means for Serbia at this point, and what it will mean for the future of the needle and syringe programs in the country is yet unknown. To find out more, watch the movie “Without Shift” produced by NGO Re Generation with support of Drug Reporter, exploring the opinions of different stakeholders on the topic.

ReGeneration movie marathon „Support. Don’t Punish”

Posted on by Milutin

On Monday, 26 June 2017, the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, NGO ReGeneration in the cooperation with KSEA ethnology and anthropology student club, organized a movie marathon within “Support. Don’t Punish” campaign. The event was organized on the open terrace of independent art space “Kvaka 22” in Belgrade while the movies were screened inside. Within movie program, the following three movies were presented: “Without shift”, “Clubbing and youth health” and “Medical cannabis legalization in Serbia”. All of the three documentaries were directed by the ReGeneration members and they present the projects and programs that were conducted by this organization.

Movie “Without shift” was premiered this time and it investigates what happened to NPB programs after the withdraw of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria from Serbia. The second movie follows the clubbing scene in Belgrade and the relationship between youth and psychoactive substances. Also, the results of the research which has involved 3318 young people were presented. The third film focuses on the story about medical cannabis legalization in local and global context.

First screening of the “Without shift” movie

Our guests were Siniša Dugonjić, the director of photography and editor of the first and the third movie, then Galeb Nikačević, who was interviewed in one of these movies but he has himself made some documentaries in „Vice“ production which consider the psychoactive substances in a different manner, and Milutin Milošević, the executive director of DPNSEE, who was also a protagonist in movies.

After the screening, the discussion was moved to the terrace, where the panel for #SupportDontPunish campaign was set. Informal meeting happened during the sunset, on this beautifully decorated terrace. The discussion was interactive, with minimal support of moderators. The guests from different fields – anthropologists, journalists, directors, designers, pharmacists, medical workers etc., contributed to the interdisciplinarity of youth education. Through the discussion, many questions have been raised, like the one about media attention to psychoactive substances in region, laws, politics and general discourse about psychoactive substances. In future, ReGeneration will continue to inform youth and to raise awareness about new psychoactive substances.

Support. Don’t Punish Kick-off event

Posted on by Milutin

The Drug Policy Network South East Europe announced activities in scope of the “Support. Don’t Punish” campaign at the Kick-off event held on 20 June in the EU Info Centre in Belgrade, Serbia. This global campaign that will in 2017 be held in 178 cities in 85 countries promotes drug policies based on human rights and public health approaches. The campaign is a voice against ruinous War Against Drugs which has in 46 years brought numerous negative consequences including overdose deaths, HIV and hepatitis C infections among people who use drugs, prison over-crowding, extra-judicial killings, the use of the death penalty, and an exacerbation of stigma, marginalisation, violence and corruption.

The Network coordinates activities of the campaign in South East Europe around the Global Day of Actions 26 June – which is also the United Nations’ International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

Promotion of the “Support. Don’t Punish” campaign ion SEE

During the event, the Network representatives emphasized numerous problems organisations that provide services are facing and growing trends in the region and Serbia specifically. Dr Maja Vučković Krčmar, representing the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia presented the European Drug Report 2017, prepared by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addictions, underlining dilemmas around cannabis decriminalisation, emerging of new psychoactive substances and increased availability of cocaine. Director of the Office for Combating Drugs of the Government of Republic of Serbia Milan Pekić reminded that Serbia is at the main Balkan drug route and called for coordinated work of all governmental structures and civil society organisations in preparing and implementing holistic answer to the problem.

The Drug Policy Network South East Europe presented the Glossary of terms used in drug policy and relevant related matters and the Resource Centre which will be of service to all those who need information and other kinds of support.

For more information about the activities in South East Europe, please visit http://www.dpnsee.org/support-dont-punish-see-country-activities/. Follow the development at Facebook or Twitter.

For information about the campaign worldwide, please visit http://supportdontpunish.org/2017-global-day-of-action/ or follow the Facebook event or Twitter account.

Governmental, civil society , international organisations and media in public

Glossary of terms used in drug policy promoted!

Posted on by Milutin

DPNSEE presented today the glossary of terms related to the problem of drugs, aiming to contribute to better understanding the drug problem in more emphatic manner. Glossary is an alphabetical list of terms used in a domain of drug policy, with the definitions for those terms. It contains explanations of concepts and terms related to the field of drugs and relevant related matters.

The glossary should serve firstly to member organisations in a way that will help in process of harmonization of opinions and attitudes. This material will also serve a wider range of groups of people including policy makers, stakeholders, activists, the media, police, judiciary and others.

The Glossary is currently in English only, but we plan to produce versions in various languages of South East Europe. We are also open to work on versions in other languages. Those interested in joining us in this effort should contact the DPNSEE Staff at office(a)dpnsee.org.

The Glossary was promoted at the Kick-off event of the “Support. Don’t Punish” campaign held at the EU Info Centre in Belgrade.

The latest version of the Glossary (December 2018) and versions in other languages are available for download following this link.

 

Kick-off event of the “Support. Don’t Punish” campaign

YODA Workshop for young activists in Europe

Posted on by Milutin

Last week (15 – 22 May) around 30 young people from 12 countries gathered in Belgrade for another round of workshops organised by Youth Organisations For Drug Action in Europe. This time the workshops, funded by European Youth Foundation and Open Society Initiatives, focused on “Promotion of social inclusion and protection of human rights among young drug users “.  Young people came from Serbia, UK, Belgium, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Macedonia and representative of the Council of Europe. 5 of them were representatives of DPNSEE member organisations Juventas, Re-Generation, Aksion Plus, HOPS and Margina.

The aim of the workshop was to analyse different aspects of human rights violations regarding young people and drugs through mentioned topics, so that official document can be drafted, addressing policy change in order to overcome different problems and prevent human rights violation in the future. Within 7-day long workshop participants were showcasing examples of human rights violations of young people protected under the European Convention on Human Rights and also compared the criminal penalties for drug offences in their countries, compared cases of young people receiving drug treatment and discussed access to drug treatment for young people who use drugs.

SPEED DATING: youth organisations and EU grants

Posted on by Milutin

The EU Info Point in Belgrade hosted representatives of 37 youth organisations and organisations for youth from 7 cities in Serbia on 28 March for the “Speed dating” event on EU funds. 9 different EU programmes and 2 national were present. The CU Delegation in Serbia, Ministry of Youth and Sports and the National Youth Council supported the event.

Participants got interesting information from EIDHR, The European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, Civil Society Facility (CSF) , COSME (Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and SME), Horizon 2020 (EU programme supports research projects, The Office for Cooperation with Civil Society supports projects (in scope of the programme Europe for Citizens), Creative Europe, Erasmus+, TACSO – Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Media programme and EU Info Point.

 

The DPNSEE Board meeting

Posted on by Milutin

The first meeting of the Board of the Drug Policy Network South East Europe was held on 20 and 21 March 2017 in the DPNSEE Office and the Library of the House of Human Rights in Belgrade, Serbia. It was an opportunity for the new start of the Board after the changes in the composition made at the last General Assembly held in November 2016. All the Board members participated, and Staff including two volunteers joined for some parts of the meeting.

The Board adopted the DPNSEE Annual statement, the minutes from the recent General Assembly and the Board meeting and the Report for period December 2016 – March 2017 proposed by the Staff. Board also discussed the Operational plan for 2017 and forthcoming events and activities.

The Board discussed the fundraising strategy, membership fees payments, reimbursement procedures, capacity building (training), volunteers’ work on resource pool and glossary, website, Expert committee and DPNSEE Strategy 2016 – 2019.

Be literate – change

Posted on by Milutin

DPNSEE established recently contact with the organisation NEOstart from Belgrade – the centre for criminal prevention and post-penal assistance. Most of the people they support also have a problem with drugs and their experiences in the process of re-socialisation are interesting. As result of the project “Be literate – change”, prepared for the young people who leave detention and rehabilitation centres, NEOstart prepared the Guidelines which were promoted on 28 February 2017.