On July 3rd in Gracanica, a new informal platform was established to support the civil society of Kosovo Serbs. This platform aims to strategically strengthen and promote independent and underrepresented voices within the Serb community in Kosovo to preserve their interests.

The platform represents the genuine interests of the Serb community, independent of political influences from Pristina or Belgrade. It includes members originally from Kosovo, balancing representation between the north and south, and focusing on previously neglected organizations and individuals from south of the Ibar River. The platform fosters both established and emerging organizations, ensuring gender balance.

In its initial advocacy phase, the platform will focus on international stakeholders, supporting interests established through an open social dialogue (bottom-up) within the community, and focusing on the basic needs and interests of citizens and their right to everyday dignity. The project will, through the platform, prepare and initiate a Serb-Albanian dialogue aimed at addressing the fundamental needs and interests of all citizens and working towards a new social contract for a multiethnic Kosovo.

This informal platform was established within the project “Moving from Integration towards a New Social Contract for a Truly Multiethnic Kosovo,” supported by the @Embassy of the Netherlands in Kosovo and implemented by the @Center for Affirmative Social Actions (CASA) and @Spaces for Societal Change (Spaces).