ABOUT US
Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso (OBC) is an online news provider and research centre devoted to social and political change in South-East Europe, Turkey and the Caucasus. The OBC team, based in Rovereto (Italy), cooperates with a network of over 40 correspondents and local contributors to deliver online articles and in-depth analyses on these areas on a daily basis.
The OBC website links information, research and international cooperation. Every month, over 100,000 readers visit the website: scholars and researchers; journalists; students; diplomats; local, regional and national government officials; policymakers; practitioners of development cooperation; business people; members of the diaspora from South-East Europe and the Caucasus; tourists and travellers; people generally interested in these areas.
Besides publishing online news, OBC produces documentary films and audiovisual material, and carries out reasearch and training activities. The OBC team participates in university workshops and public events. All OBC products, the footage and papers of events can be found in the Multimedia, Our Products, Specials and OBC Events sections of the OBC website.
Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso is engaged in the main social networks on the net, distributes all of its content with a copyleft license and employs open source technologies.
TOPICS
A CITIZENS’ EUROPE
From political Enlargement to the integration of European societies
RIGHTS
Human rights, minorities, migration, gender issues, welfare and diversity for pluralism in Europe
WAR AND PEACE
Conflict transformation through remembrance, justice and truth
A DIFFICULT INHERITANCE
The conflicts and socio-political changes after the collapse of the communist regimes
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
Voices of independent journalism in the Balkans and the Caucasus
CULTURE
Films, literature, music, art and cultural “contamination”
DECENTRALISED COOPERATION
Transnational relations with South East Europe, Turkey and the Caucasus
GEOPOLITICAL CROSSROADS
International relations in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea
LOCAL DEVELOPMENT
Administrative decentralisation, sustainable development and responsible tourism
BACKGROUND
Osservatorio sui Balcani was established in the year 2000 in response to the need for knowledge and debate by civil society and institutions that had been working for years for peaceful cohabitation in South-East Europe. In 2006, it expanded its activities to the Caucasus and, in 2009, it changed its name to Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso (OBC).
OBC is supported by the Peace Bell Foundation and the Trentino Forum for Peace and Human Rights. It is sponsored by the Department for International Solidarity of the Autonomous Province of Trento and the Municipality of Rovereto, in Italy. In addition, it implements projects funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Commission, several foundations, state and private organisations.
