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.
THEMES
Grassroots political Europe
From political enlargement to the integration of European societies
War and Peace
Collective memory; conflict transfromation; individual and collective security
Post-communist transitions
Social and political change; welfare re-establishment and human-rights protection
Transcultural dialogue
Civil society and cross cultural contamination
International development cooperation
Decentralised cooperation among regions, cities and local communities in SEE, the Caucasus and Italy
Justice
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia; local courts; war crimes in terms of memory, truth and justice
Geopolitics
International relations; strategic and economic interests in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions
Freedom of the press
Independent voices from the Balkans, the Caucasus and Turkey
Local development
Administrative decentralisation; sustainable and local development; 'responsible' tourism; social reconstruction
Migrant communities from South-East Europe, Turkey and the Caucasus in Italy
Migrations and the development nexus
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.
