Seminar on Community Building in the Multi-ethnic Societies of the Western Balkans - from the Human Security Point of View

March 15, 2006

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will hold a "Seminar on Community Building in the Multi-ethnic Societies of the Western Balkans - from the Human Security point of view" on March 22 (Wed) at Mita Kaigisho, Tokyo.
From Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro) and the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of Kosovo, government officials and researchers concerned with the issue of minority groups and local self-government will be invited to the Seminar. Representatives from EU member states and candidate countries, G8 countries, and international organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), and the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe will also attend.
This Seminar is a follow-up to a "Ministerial Conference on Peace Consolidation and Economic Development of the Western Balkans" which was held in Tokyo in 2004. It will discuss measures for community building in the multi-ethnic societies from the human security perspective, with a view to contributing to the promotion of ethnic reconciliation in the Western Balkans, where difficulties arising from its multi-ethnicity continue to exist after the end of the conflicts.

(END)