June 18, the American think-tank Freedom House released this year’s edition of the annual report Nations in Transit.
The desire for democratic change in Eurasia was met with increased repression in most authoritarian regimes during the last year. Increased corruption and censorship of critical media outlets as well as an increased pressure on civil society organisations characterize the developments in a majority of Eurasian countries, according to the report.
June 10-13, Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation arranged a study trip to Brussels for members of the Bosniak party SDA. The target group was young politicians who had participated in a four step training model directed by the Foundation and the SDA Political Academy in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). (more…)
Discussions on political justice, courts and human rights in Turkey
June 10-11, the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation hosted a round-table conference in Stockholm together with the think-tank European Stability Initiative (ESI) on political prisoners in Europe, focusing on the situation in the Council of Europe and its member states. (more…)
In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation (JHS) works with SDA, one of the first parties that was formed after multiparty system was introduced in BiH. On March 22-24, third step of a four step training model, tailored for JHS partners in the Balkans, took place. The location was the small Bosnian town of Fojnica, outside of Sarajevo, and participants consisted of around 30 young representatives from SDA, selected among 300 applicants. (more…)
Women’s Conference in Zagreb
March 8-10, the third Regional Women’s Round Table Conference was organised by the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation. This time in cooperation with the Croatian party HDZ and IWDU. The conference was held in springtime Zagreb, and the participants were female politicians from our cooperation parties in the region. (more…)
”Whether in Kenya or in Serbia, political campaigning is all about the same things” said Tomislav Damnjanović, campaign manager of G17 Plus – the party that Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation works with in Serbia – in his opening speech. G17 Plus, which is represented in the coalition government, had selected around twenty young representatives from central and southern Serbia to travel to Belgrade for a three-day (March 1-3) conference arranged by the Foundation. All participants were active on the local level and most of them had already been involved earlier in campaigns in their hometowns. (more…)
February 22-24 the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation together with the Bosnian centre-right party PDP arranged this year’s first conference. The theme for this weekend was Local Politics and Campaigning, due to the local elections held in Bosnia in October 2012. The participants were newly elected local politicians as well as their more experienced colleagues. (more…)
For the second time this year, Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation (JHS) arranged a study visit to Brussels for youth from the Macedonian ruling party, VMRO-DPMNE. The study trip, which lasted between 26 and 29 November, included visits to EU and NATO. The participants, mostly students, were members of the youth branch of the VMRO-DPMNE or active in local politics. (more…)
”Right now, the most important thing is to fight the corruption”, said one of the young members of the Serbian G17 Plus – a small, relatively newly formed liberal party that is part of the ruling government coalition. Serbia has not only undergone wars and long periods of political misrule, today, the country is struck by an economic crisis and the unemployment number is reaching 25 percent. The gap of living standards between cities and smaller rural towns is growing and people, who cannot find jobs in the major cities, escape the country.
During September 14-16 the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation with the Bosnian political party SDA (Party of Democratic Action) arranged a conference in the city of Fojnica. This was the second conference in a series that accepted 40 young Bosnian politicians out of 300 applicants as part of the SDA-Academy.
