"Every young person has the right to support and the improvement of their development in order to become self-responsible and socially accountable, without discrimination on any grounds", states the Law on Youth of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The same Law also notes that "Competent authorities should, through defined measures, provide young people with various opportunities aimed at enhancing their development".
The responsibility for providing support to young people lies with all levels of government in the Federation, which are obligated to define, adopt, and implement youth strategies. Municipal, city, and cantonal levels of government are required to independently ensure a minimum set of measures related to youth work and youth activities. These include providing appropriate spaces for young people and covering the costs of their maintenance, allocating a specific budget line for youth issues within the overall budget of the municipality, city, or canton, designating a municipal or city department responsible for youth affairs, ensuring annual grants for youth projects awarded through public calls with clear criteria in line with European principles of public administration, strengthening the capacities of all those involved in youth work and youth activities, establishing an expert working body to draft, update, and monitor the implementation of local and cantonal youth strategies with the participation of youth councils or youth organizations, and conducting or supporting research aimed at creating youth strategies.
That’s what the Law says. But in practice, things are quite different. And, like many others in this country, young people don’t get what they need or what they are entitled to - they get what they fight for. In places where they decide to stand up for themselves and their rights. For example… in Odžak.
Three organizations gathered within the Youth Council of the Municipality of Odžak, with the support of the PRAGG project, have initiated the process of adopting regulations that would enable young people to propose solutions to local problems. The Municipality of Odžak currently lacks a strategic framework for youth that, through its implementation, would offer young people a chance to improve their prospects. According to the activists from the Youth Council of Odžak, a key issue facing young people is the lack of adequate space for their activities. This problem not only hinders the organization of various social initiatives, but also significantly limits civic engagement by reducing youth participation in social processes. In addition to providing organizations, informal groups, and individuals with a safe and creative space for work, education, and networking, a functional youth space could also contribute to strengthening civil society and fostering active citizenship.
“As an organization, we meet in private homes, keep our documents in cars—some with me, some with my colleagues—because we don’t have our own space. For years, we’ve been reporting this issue and requesting a space, but we’ve never been given one. We’ve submitted budget proposals related to youth, pointed to the Law on Youth and our rights, but nothing has ever been set in motion”, says Iva Dujaković, President of the Youth Council of the Municipality of Odžak.
Young people emphasize that solving this issue does not require significant investments and that it could be addressed through better allocation of existing funds or by making use of already available infrastructure.
Activists from the Youth Council of the Municipality of Odžak (VMOO) believe that the adoption of a Youth Strategy for the municipality would open the door to advocating for a decision by local authorities to include young people in various municipal commissions. They also expect the strategy they are demanding to ensure that local authorities allocate regular annual funding for VMOO activities from the municipal budget. Their goal is for the allocated space to become a Resource Center with programs and activities dedicated to youth.
“It will be good for young people to have a space because they will be able to share ideas, and if they need help, they’ll have somewhere to turn. We want to lay the foundation for future initiatives, for writing and implementing ideas. We want young people to develop micro-businesses. We want them to reach out to us and suggest what should be done and how. Through education, we hope to encourage at least some young people to stay in Odžak. We want people to start submitting initiatives to the Municipality—something that has been rarely or never done until now. Most citizens are not even aware that such a possibility exists”, say representatives of the Youth Council of Odžak, announcing concrete activities to follow.
