Centre for Peace Studies

Centre for Peace Studies (CMS; CPS) is a Croatian non-governmental and non-profit organisation promoting non-violence and social change through education, public policy, research and activism. CMS grew out of various forms of direct peace-building in western Slavonia (Volunteers’ Project Pakrac, 1993-1997). It was founded in 1996 in Pakrac and formally registered in Zagreb the following year. CMS believes that by building a network of educated citizens who have peace-building skills and apply the values of peacebuilding in everyday life, we contribute to the making of an active and influential civil society. Through encouraging active and/or interested citizens we want to be a driving force in promoting a lasting and positive peace in the region. Through public events and actions, we want to influence the public, the media and government structures to encourage them to engage in the processes of dealing with the past and the articulation of peace-building policies. CMS operates through three compatible programs: Asylum, Integration and Human Security; Peace Education and Nonviolence Affirmation; Combating Inequality. The Asylum, Integration and Human Security Program relies on the strategic guidance of the Centre for Peace Studies: to increase the openness of society towards diversity. The thematic areas in which members of this program are experts are migration, asylum and integration, racism and xenophobia, discrimination, extremism, hate speech and inter-ethnic radicalization. Program activities are realized through the following methodological approaches: intercultural mediation and social support in integration, establishment of Intercultural Social Centre, legal aid and strategic litigation, monitoring and advocacy of policy changes in Croatia and the EU, public campaigns and public awareness, cultural production, research and professional analysis, vocational education and change of educational policies and development of intercultural educational content.