Handbook for Local Councilors

12 June 2006

The Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (National Association of Local Authorities) presented the Handbook for Local Councilors on Inter-ethnic Relations, designed to assist the local self-government representatives in implementation of national equality.

At the launch ceremony, OSCE Ambassador Hans Ola Urstad, expressed his expectations for this Handbook to contribute to Serbia becoming a positive example of how a multiethnic society should function.

�Having in mind the fact that more than 20 different ethnic groups live in Serbia, the Handbook has the task to create an inclusive type of local government that would encourage the participation of all minority communities in the social life�, said Ola Urstad.

According to Ola Urstad, the primary aim of the Handbook is to offer good practices for solving of problems and concerns of minority communities to local self-government and Interethnic relations Councils.

Goran Basic, the author of the project, said that the Handbook was created on the basis of the Law on Local Communities, which covers the improvement of interethnic relations through creation of Local Councils for Protection and Promotion of National Equality on Local level. Basic reminded the public that there are 68 multiethnic municipalities in Serbia, and that Interethnic relations Councils were established in 20 of them.