The Pathways to Reconciliation and Global Human Rights conference to be held in Sarajevo in August, 2005 is an opportunity to bring together thinkers and practitioners to reflect upon, evaluate and advance the global human-rights agenda. The fourth in the Pathways to Reconciliation series, the conference is also an opportunity to engage the specific locale of Bosnia and Herzegovina in a global context.

Convened by the Globalism Institute, RMIT University, Australia in partnership with the United Nations Development Program in Bosnia and Herzegovina, this collaboration has received the support of organisations and associations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Australia and from around the world.

Academics, political leaders and civil society in Bosnia and Herzegovina and within the region of the former Yugoslavia will join members of the international human rights and reconciliation community to present a unique program.

Local non-government organisations will give detailed accounts of grass-roots reconciliation initiatives and provide testimony of their experiences of civil conflict. Howard Dean (Chair of the United States Democratic Party National Committee and Governor of Vermont) and internationally renowned academics Benjamin Barber and Brendan O’Leary will address the themes of: reconciliation and human rights discourse, the context and strategies for reconciliation and; the tools for reconciliation: international networks, institutions and laws.

The program of activities has been designed to facilitate the development of a number of ongoing initiatives such as an international support and counselling network for survivors of violence and trauma and collaborative research between international, local, non-governmental and community-based individuals on the theme of 'community sustainability'.

The conference is followed immediately by the Sarajevo International Film Festival opening on August 20th in the beautiful and cosmopolitan city of Sarajevo.