Women’s Peace Activism

Women’s peace activism has been developing on the territories of former Yugoslavia since the beginning of the 1990’s. It began emerging shortly before the war, and was organized by various women’s groups and individual activists who directed their anti-war and peace activities to raise attention to the fact that wars should, above all, be prevented. Their later activities also focused on showing solidarity with people living in war-torn territories, and all important direct actions of sending aid and extracting people who were in danger. This network of women’s peace organizations that began more than 30 years ago still exists and operates on the territories of former Yugoslav republics.

Since it was established in 2013 the Alternative Girls’ Center has oriented its work also toward cooperation with other women’s peace organizations, independent groups, networks and independent activists, all in the aim of building stable and sustainable peace on the territories of former Yugoslavia as a post-conflict region undergoing transition.

Feminist Spring School

We have been organizing the Feminist Spring School since 2014 (with a brief break till 2016) in cooperation with Artpolis – Center for Arts and Community from Pristina. The School’s program is of an educational character, contains two modules, and aims at bringing together young activists from Kosovo* and Serbia. With their knowledge and activism in their respective communities, these activists can contribute to building stable and sustainable peace from a feminist perspective, they can refer to international documents on peace, stability and gender equality, and call for actions in accordance to these. Approximately 180 young activists have taken part in this program.

From 2017 to 2020 participants of the Feminist Spring School from Serbia have either applied for or have been invited to volunteer or attend the FemArt Festival which is organized in Pristina every year by our partner organization Artpolis. Numerous activities take place at this festival, including panel discussions on current socio-political topics from a feminist perspective. Participants of the Feminist Spring School from both Kosovo* and Serbia take part in these frequently.

Our publication “Making History Together – Building Peace Together” is a collection of selected stories written by participants of the Feminist Spring School, narrating their experiences which motivated them to build different relationships, or which empowered them to join women’s/feminist groups and organizations. The first printed edition from 2018 contains seven stories, translated to three languages (Albanian, Serbian, and English). The first public presentation of this publication took place at the second part of the Feminist Spring School in 2018, at the BeFem Festival in Belgrade.