BACKGROUND
Osservatorio sui Balcani was established in the year 2000 to respond to the need for knowledge and debate by people, associations, 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 into Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso (OBC).
OBC is promoted by Fondazione Opera Campana dei Caduti (Peace Bell Foundation).
PATRONS
Peace Bell Foundation : The Foundation, a non-profit organisation founded in 1968 with a presidential decree, adopted the project, which came into existence in 2000, and placed it side by side with the other project supported by the Foundation: UNIP - Università Internazionale delle Istituzioni dei Popoli per la Pace (International University of People's Institutions for Peace). Peace Bell Foundation pays special attention, among its goals, to the education of youth about a culture of peace, non-violence and human rights.
Forum Trentino for Peace and Human Rights : is a permanent organisation devoted to ensure civil society's participation in the implementation of the Trentino provincial law of 10 June 1991, n. 11 “Promotion and diffusion of peace culture.”
DONORS
Autonomous Province of Trento : supports the initiatives and activities of OBC through a multiyear agreement signed with the Peace Bell Foundation. The province promotes and supports international solidarity with projects of decentralised cooperation in the Balkans; e.g. promotion of the Trentino-Kosovo Association and supporting the Prijedor Project Association and the Trentino Roundtable with Kraljevo Association. The Province is also active in other world areas.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs : in the framework of the SeeNet II programme, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs supports part of Osservatorio's research and information activities on the Western Balkans in the field of decentralised cooperation.
Municipality of Rovereto : supports the Peace Bell Foundation’s promotion of peace and human rights culture through a multiyear agreement. The municipality also promotes decentralised cooperation activities belonging – along with other local organizations and associations – to the Trentino Roundtable with Kraljevo. The Centro di Educazione Permanente alla Pace (Centre of Permanent Peace Education) also operates in Rovereto and was founded in 1992 through an agreement between the municipality and the Committee of the Associations for Peace and Human Rights.
OTHER DONORS
European Commission : has funded since 2006 several OBC projects that foster the European collective memory. The OBC activities on human rights, democracy, conflicts and borders expresses the need to remember the past while building a yet-to-come Europe.
Regione autonoma Trentino - Alto Adige/Südtirol : supported in 2000 the start-up of OBC and several initiatives and paid particular attention to cohabitation, reconciliation, self-government and minority rights.
Municipality of Trento : has been an OBC partner since the beginning of the project. For many years, it has promoted international solidarity and decentralised cooperation with South-East Europe. It supports the Prijedor Project Association and the Local Democracy Agency of Prijedor, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto : (Mutual/trustee savings bank of Trento and Rovereto Foundation) sponsored in 2006 a research course dedicated to the Balkan cinema industry from the 1970s to the present. From 2000 to 2002, the OBC research activities were part of the agreement drawn up with the Peace Bell Foundation to support its study and educational activities for peace and human rights.
