See them in yourself

By Clémentine Momas

This past month was very intense and I learned a lot: I started from knowing nothing about Kosovo to being able to have a discussion with friends and family about it and follow the news about what is happening in the Balkans. The fact that we did not get the chance to go to Kosovo physically was still really disappointing: we did not get the chance to meet people from there and get immersed in the culture. Despite the excitement and the interesting meetings, it was hard for me to focus on my computer all day long. I hope that I will be able to go to Kosovo soon to discover the country and visit the organizations that we met with! 

Despite all of that, I am very grateful for Anne de Graaf and Nini Pieters for putting so much effort into organizing this virtual trip and booking meetings with so many different organizations and people. I was pleasantly surprised that Kosovo’s former Prime Minister agreed to meet with us. This meeting was very inspirational and I loved hearing about his perspectives and his own experience.

Through this course, I also got the chance to create a podcast about feminism and women’s rights in Kosovo. It made me rethink the privileges I have had while growing up in Western Europe and to think about feminism differently. I also came across very touching stories and realized that feminism can be used as a peacebuilding tool.

This course also taught me that there is no such thing as a single solution regarding peacebuilding: each approach should be tailored to the country and the situation where peacebuilding is taking place. Achieving peace in a post-conflict area such as Kosovo is a tough and long process. The tensions between Kosovo and Serbia are surely not as easily solvable as President Trump’s actions currently suggest. Furthermore, I was exposed to many Serbian minority organizations and people through this course, and I could see that both sides fear the other: in Mitrovica, the Serbs were scared to go to the South and the Albanians were afraid of going to the North. Both have misconceptions and are influenced by their heavy historical background. Even today, the young people we met are still prejudiced against the other ethnicity in some way, even though they may have friends from both sides. Nonetheless, I was pleasantly surprised to see that many NGOs are working hard to tackle the division between the two communities.

This quote that I got from our lecturer Anne de Graaf is very relevant to the situation in Kosovo and any peacebuilding attempt in general: "You shouldn’t try to put yourself in someone else’s shoes but instead, try to see them in yourself." This quote really stuck with me and made me also think about the way I interact with others, especially with people from a culture or a situation that is different than mine.

To conclude, despite being online, this Peace Lab course taught me a lot about the situation and history of the Balkans and peacebuilding. It was one of the most rewarding courses that I took during my AUC journey and I would recommend it to anyone interested in Human Rights and in learning about peacebuilding!