On 26 October 2026, Professor Kemal Durić, Vice-Rector for International Cooperation at the University of Sarajevo, and Imran Pašalić, a student representative and initiator of the Students’ Peace Declaration, will participate in a discussion at the United Nations (UN) in New York. Sponsored by the Mission of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the UN, the event will examine how cooperation across political and ethnonational divisions can be supported and sustained. The University of Sarajevo, a member of EUPeace, will bring institutional and student perspectives to a discussion informed by research from Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs and the Institute for Development Impact (I4DI).
Student participation in peacebuilding
Pašalić will present the Students’ Peace Declaration, tracing its development from signing to implementation and highlighting its role in student participation and inclusion. His contribution will explore how its commitments can translate into practical action within university communities. This student perspective connects the discussion to EUPeace’s work on peace, justice, and inclusive societies, placing students alongside researchers and university leaders as contributors to peacebuilding.
Research on cooperation across divisions
Published in September 2026, the policy brief Building and Sustaining Cooperation Across Divisions in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Bosnia and Herzegovina was authored by Catherine Panter-Brick, David Simon, Mak Nurkić, Andrea Pozderac, and Dženana Šabić-Hamidović. It draws on fieldwork in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the United States between June and August 2026, comprising 23 interviews, 11 focus groups and roundtable discussions, and a review of 118 sources. Contributors included academics, researchers, and students from the University of Sarajevo’s Faculty of Criminalistics, Criminology and Security Studies and Faculty of Law, alongside universities in Mostar, East Sarajevo, Tuzla, and Banja Luka. Funded by Yale’s Blue Center for Global Strategic Assessment, the research builds on the partnership’s 2025 study of everyday peace in Sarajevo and East Sarajevo.
Making everyday cooperation visible
The brief argues that cooperation is more widespread than political and public debate suggests: people work, trade, conduct research, and solve shared problems together, while conflict attracts greater attention. Drawing on the 2026 CONSENT BiH survey, the authors identify substantial disagreement over territory, sovereignty, and representation, but closer alignment on an independent judiciary, professional public administration, equal rights, and institutional integrity. These findings provide a basis for discussing how universities and other institutions can recognise existing cooperation and help sustain it.
Follow online and continue the discussion
Members of the EUPeace community who wish to watch the UN session can follow the public webcast on UN Web TV on 26 October 2026 at 16:00 Central European Time. Follow-up discussions will take place in person at the University of Sarajevo Rectorate Hall on 9 November 2026 at 10:00, where the full findings will be presented, including a conjoint experiment examining how respondents weigh different options, involving approximately 3,000 respondents in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A further discussion with colleagues from Yale University and the University of Luxembourg will take place at the University of Tuzla’s Faculty of Philosophy on 10 November 2026 at 10:00. Both times are local. These events will bring the research into dialogue with institutions and academic communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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