Verona Forum for Peace and Reconciliation in former Yugoslavia

During the war in BiH, there were two larger networks that gathered civic and antiwar groups from former Yugoslavia and other European countries. Both aimed to help these alternative voices from former Yugoslavia communicate with each other and make their voices heard on the international scene. One was the Helsinki Citizens Assembly (HCA), which was created in 1990 to gather civil society forces from across Europe. The other one was the Verona Forum for Peace and Reconciliation in former Yugoslavia, which was specifically created as a response to the situation in the region.

The initiative took its name from Verona, Italy, the site of its first two conferences, held in 1992 and 1993. It’s main initiator was Alexander Langer, an Italian delegate to the European Parliament from South Tyrol, and one of the most vocal fighters for peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Langer’s office in the European Parliament coordinated the network. Its main focus was giving voice and visibility to peace and democracy-oriented civic forces from former Yugoslavia who fought nationalist forces’ dominance and the international community’s unwillingness to stop ongoing violence. He was made an honorary citizen by the city of Sarajevo in 2021.

Following the first conferences in Italy, the Verona Forum organised several more conferences – in Vienna, Paris and Tuzla – that brought together representatives of civic groups from former Yugoslavia and other European countries. The Verona Forum regularly invited Western politicians to its gatherings, aiming to expose them to these civic forces’ existence and provide an opportunity for them to get in contact with one another. “Talk also to them, the courageous women and men of dialogue and reconciliation” was the Verona Forum’s message to the international community.