YIHR Kosovo’s Cross-Border Youth Dialogue Project and the Children of War Museum

In a region where the past is still a point of contention, young people from Kosovo are becoming the catalyst of platforms for dialogue, reconciliation, and mutual understanding. The Cross-border Youth Dialogue (CYD) project, funded by the EU, is working to break down barriers and create interaction opportunities for young people from Kosovo and Serbia. At the same time, YIHR Kosovo recently launched the Children of War Museum, which sheds light on the stories of those who lived through war as children. Both of these YIHR Kosovo initiatives play a vital role in promoting the importance of remembrance, documentation and communication in the path to reconciliation.

Ethnic tensions and nationalist narratives, especially promoted in the public discourse on a state level, still obstruct progress toward reconciliation. Young people who have grown up in a post-war reality both in Kosovo and Serbia often are devoid of spaces and platforms to connect with each other. This is what the Cross-border Youth Dialogue project wants to change by bringing forth structured platforms for intercultural exchange, youth leadership and civic engagement. 

Through youth exchanges, storytelling workshops, human rights training, and cross-border internships, CYD empowers young activists to challenge stereotypes, advocate for tolerance, and build sustainable relationships. By strengthening civil society networks and increasing public participation in reconciliation efforts, the project is contributing to regional stability on the one hand and is giving a central position to the voices of young people in Kosovo and Serbia in the peacebuilding processes, allowing them to shape a future based on cooperation rather than division.

Play Interrupted and The Children of War Museum

Storytelling remains one of the most profound ways to maintain the past in current discussions as a tool to help societies confront the traumas from the conflicts. Opened in January 2025 by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Kosovo, the Children of War Museum offers a perspective on the Kosovo War that has largely been marginalised from the public discourse.  The museum showcases stories of those who were children during the war, preserving their memories and experiences through objects, installations, and video testimonies.

Titled “Play Interrupted” – to indicate the abrupt and violent interruption of the play of those who were children during the war in Kosovo – the exhibition is inspired by dozens of stories of people who were children during the war in Kosovo. 

“During the last war in Kosovo, 1133 children were killed, of which 109 are still missing. The war did not just end innocent lives; for many children who survived the war, the traumatic experience caused a symbolic interruption of their childhood. Facing war caused a dissonance between their need to grow securely, the capacity to process events and experiences beyond their emotional capacities, and the need for adaptation and premature growth under war conditions,” is said in the curatorial text of the exhibition. 

The exhibition, designed to offer a real reflection of the events and the narratives of its participants, unfolds a journey in times of war, in which the stories take the viewers to hiding, fleeing and migrating in extreme conditions, refugee camps, the traumatic confrontation with loss and death, the return to burnt homes, and the freedom and chaos that ensued afterwards. The exhibition has been curated to be multivocal so that each voice speaks from an acknowledged social position and historical context without submitting to a curatorial narrative that emphasises the antagonism of experiences. Through the stories of childhood experiences, the exhibition aims to contest inequalities and the marginalisation of social groups, promote human rights, and boost the inclusion of narratives from people who were children during the war. All experiences in this exhibition are part of the history of conflict experiences. All artefacts are indicative of personal experiences of a challenging period.

Both these initiatives are a recognition of the fact that sustainable peace cannot be achieved without acknowledging the past and creating opportunities for cross-community engagement. By working with young people in Kosovo and Serbia, these initiatives not only contribute to individual empowerment but also challenge broader societal divisions.

Through its Dealing with the Past program, YIHR Kosovo continues to contribute to creating platforms for addressing the past and fostering peace in Kosovo and the region. This program focuses on supporting initiatives and raising awareness among Kosovo’s population about the realities of the recent wars in the Balkans. It aims to inform the collective memory and contribute to peacebuilding efforts.