The Mayor of Mostar, Mr. Ljubo Beslic, presented the experience of the City of Mostar on reconciliation and post conflict situation management and the role of the Local Democracy Agency of Mostar in this process still continuing.
His speech, at the seminar on “Local Authorities in the prevention of conflict, peace building and reconciliation” organised in Geneva, Switzerland, on 30th and 31st August, by the International association of Francophone Mayors (AIMF), was very appreciated by all participants, who see in Mostar a very good example of reconciliation. Ms Marine Henry, project manager in ALDA, was also attending this meeting.
The 2 days seminar in Geneva gathered around 50 Mayors and Representative of Association of Local Authorities coming from France, Belgium, Switzerland, African countries, Lebanon, Bosnia Herzegovina, etc.
The first part was dedicated to a dialogue between European Commission and Local Authorities Representatives concerning the future communication of the European Commission on Local Authorities. This text will define the future strategy of intervention of the European Commission towards Local Authorities. Simon Compaoré, Mayor of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) and General Secretary of AIMF started by reminding the context of the progressive recognition by EU of the role of Local Authorities in cooperation and development. Then Mrs Elena ASCUITTI from Europaid Department presented the new guidelines for the partnership between European Commission and Local Authorities. She invited all Local Authorities Representatives to participate to the consultation by answering to 27 questions dealing with 8 main issues. The deadline for submitting comments and suggestions is November 2012.
The second part consisted on the seminar on “Local Authorities in the prevention of conflict, peace building and reconciliation”.
The event was concluded by the presentation of a first version of a toolkit designed on the initiative of AIMF on the role of local elected people in the prevention of conflicts and diversity management on their territories. This tool divided in 5 pillars aims at giving tips on the ways for local authorities to prevent conflict in the prism of the integration of all part of population living on their territories. A more final version will be presented in the General Assembly of AIMF, which will be held in Abidjan (Ivory Coast) next November.