About a thousand Bosnian citizens remain housed in temporary shelters in the aftermath of the floods that devastated the country last May. Neither they nor the institutions have any certainty about what to expect in the coming months
Baku is heading to chair the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, the continent’s leading human rights organisation, with an embarrassing record of prisoners of conscience
The Armenian political elite and the general public are divided on the account of the Kiev events. The main question, however, is whether the Ukrainian revolution may spill out to Armenia
Many Circassians are calling for a boycott of the Sochi Olympics, saying the Games will take place on the same grounds where their people was ethnically cleansed by Russian troops in the XIX century. Interview with Fatima Tlisova, journalist
They flee Countries like Syria, where their lives are endangered, but are rejected by the local population who sets up barricades and fires. The tragedy of asylum seekers in Serbia
After a recent wave of incidents, Serbian authorities have promised draconian measures against hooligans, but seem unable to effectively tackle the problem
Tens of Bosniak families have withdrawn their children from the schools they were attending in Republika Srpska. They demand their children be taught their own national subjects. Our report
The Council of Europe against Republika Srpska. Strasbourg reports serious offences committed by the police in Banja Luka, allegedly guilty of crimes that qualify as torture
A young woman wrote to Osservatorio to denounce the treatment her Grandmother was subjected to in the Serbian healthcare facilities. Her letter tells of requests for money, humiliating treatment and working negligence
The mobilization to preserve Gezi Park, one of Istanbul's few green areas, has sparked a wave of protests against the government of Turkey's Prime Minister Erdoğan. Arzu Geybullayeva shows in her photos the time line of the protests
Friends and family members have placed a memorial stone on the site where three Italian pacifists, Guido Puletti, Sergio Lana and Fabio Moreni, were murdered on May 29 twenty years ago while carrying aid to the Bosnian population
Revelations on the sexual abuses by the Tuzla bishop - Karadžić and Mladić’s spiritual guide - have dragged the Serbian Orthodox church through one of the major scandals of the latest years. The victims’ declarations, the reconstruction by the Bosnian reporter who was able to get a hold of the records of the witnesses’ depositions
In just a few days, the Croatian civil society raised a million Dollars so that a seriously ill 5-year-old girl could get treatment. Now there is not a single person in Croatia who does not know who little Nora Šitum is
The law introducing double signs in Latin and Cyrillic on the streets of Vukovar has triggered strong protests. But how much is the city really divided?
It is open clash between the Croatian Catholic Church and the center-left government. The disputed issue is sex education in schools, recently introduced in the broader context of civic education and health
On 12 April, the murder of five people by lake Smiljkovo, at the outskirts of Skopje, struck Macedonia's ethnic cohesion. Five people are now in jail, accused of being part of an Islamic terrorist organization. Many questions, however, remain unanswered
Weeks of street demonstrations in Romania, where citizens have rarely protested against the “power”. We have discussed it with Vintila Mihailescu, an anthropologist amongst the most lucid intellectuals in Romania
The arrest in Spain of four Serbian citizens alleged leaders of one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the Balkans, the infamous Zemun clan, has inflicted a heavy blow on organized crime in the region. But is it truly over?
While former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader faces trial on corruption charges, further evidence emerges on the wrongdoings of the ruling party HDZ, whose popularity is at an all-time low. Political analysts believe the center-left has already won the elections, scheduled for next December 4th
Anvar Sharipov, a Russian citizen from Daghestan, has recently obtained refugee status in Italy. His story should have proceeded smoothly, but unfortunately it did not. On the contrary, the Sharipov affair shows up major shortcomings in safeguarding rights to asylum in Italy
Heavy sentences for the three Chechens accused of murdering Umar Israilov, former body guard of Ramzan Kadyrov, killed in Vienna in January 2009 after denouncing the Chechen leader to the Strasbourg Court
Carla Del Ponte, former Head of the Prosecutor's Office of the International Criminal Tribunal of the Hague, comments on the position of the defendant and on the possible development of the case. Interview
Now that Ratko Mladić has been arrested and extradited to the Hague, Serbia needs to come to terms with a history the country has not yet dared to deal with. An interview with Nataša Kandić, director of Belgrade's Humanitarian Law Centre
It isn’t enough that Mladić’s arrest was one of the international conditions for Serbia. Belgrade will still have to wait a long while before it can enter the European Union. What’s important is that Mladić’s arrest opens the path towards reconciliation and that it’s possible to look into each other’s eyes again. A comment
In Skopje the construction of a church has increased hostility between the ethnic groups living in the Macedonian capital. Behind the clashes and protests hide the different political agendas of VMRO and DUI, the two ruling parties. An example of how the political leadership's behavior can contribute to the escalation of inter-ethnic tensions
After the violent riots on January 21st, fear reigns in the streets of Tirana. Many fear a new 1997 and the return to a past that seemed gone. Meanwhile, premier Berisha and Edi Rama, leader of the main opposition party, do not seem intent upon negotiating a solution to the crisis. An article by our correspondent
Macedonia's law on the lustration of public figures compromised by the communist regime has come late. As elsewhere in Eastern Europe it has been used for high-level acts of political revenge. Now it's the Albanian 'hero', and leader of the DUI, Ali Ahmenti's turn
Leader of the Turkish feminist movement, Fätmagül Berktay has defended the right to university even for those wearing the veil. “The Kemalist constitution let us move forward in society, but it had no effect on domestic violence, widespread in any class and ethnicity. The EU would make us stronger”. Our interview
Half of the migrants resident in Italy comes from Romania, Bulgaria, the Balkans, and non-EU Eastern Europe, not to mention those from Central Europe. But who lives where? Exclusively for Osservatorio sui Balcani e Caucaso, an analysis of the main communities by macro-region
