ACTION PLAN FOR PREVENTING CONFLICTS

ESCALATION, CAUSED BY BUILDING OR DEMOLISHING OF

THE MONUMENTS IN HONOR OF COMBATANTS AND WAR
MEMORIALS

OSCE MODEL 2016

The present Action Plan contains regulations for preventing the escalation of conflicts caused by
building or demolishing of the monuments in honor of combatants and war memorials (below
referred as: monument/memorial), alike the general steps for the procedure of adopting the decision
of building a monument/memorial. The mentioned plan involves also provisions on analysis of the
correspondence of potential monument/memorial with the human rights, international legislation and
local legislation, with specification of ways to solve the discrepancies related to breaking off and
violating the law.
The following regulation package, is the main part of the Action Plan which need to be adopted as
a recommendation with general connotation of the steps, and will be proposed for the further analysis
and potential adoption by governments, parliaments, and other resort authorities from the OSCE
member-countries. It is mandatory to be taken into consideration the fact that this Plan has no
obligatory status. The final decision on approving and implementation of this plan depends on the
country-members positions.

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3 I. Objectives and purposes of the Action Plan
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e) The Action Plan intends to provide participating States with a comprehensive toolkit to
help them reglement peacefully disputes regarding monuments and memorials;
f) The Action Plan is further intended to assist participating States in employing these
tools by drawing upon regional precedents.

II. Definitions of cultural monuments and memorials

1) monument something erected in memory of a person, event, etc., as a building, pillar, or statue
that doesnt contain symbols, text or objects that would provoke possible inter-ethnic conflicts.
2) memorial something designed to preserve the memory of a person, event, etc., as a monument
or a holiday.

III. Legal provisions regarding the construction

and installment of monuments/memorials
1. The decision of building a memorial/monument has to be forerun by:
a) An argumented decision of people living on the territory of the prospective monument, and those
who are involved in the terms of building of the monuments addressed to the local administration
b) an argumented initiative of building the monument/memorial addressed to the local
administration.
c) results of consultations with local administration authorities are obliged to initiate with the
NGOs, representatives of civil society, national experts (from domains of architecture, urbanism
etc.)
d) adopting the decision
of building
the monument/memorial
by
thelocal
public authorities.
e) dispatching the above mentioned information to the central authority from cultural domains ( as
Ministries of Culture, Governmental Agencies of culture/monuments, etc.) , according to the
states legislation

f) analysis of the relevance and compliances with the state legislation, made by structures
mentioned in the point d), of the I chapter.
g) approving or rejecting the initiative with dispatching of the arguments of decision, to the involved
parties.

2. Process of building the monument/memorial:

a) All parties involved need to agree on the place of the monument/memorial position.
b) All parties involved need to agree on the financial aspects of building and maintenance of the
monument/memorial.
c) Building of memorial/monument should be performed without violating the legal framework.

Rules of procedures regarding the implementation of the Action Plan

a) If one of the authorities blocks the process of adoption and implementation of the building
decision related to the monument/memorial, parties are obliged to dispatch argument based letters
on this topic to involved parts, in order to receive a mutual consensus.
b) In the case in which a judicial process regarding a monument/memorial reaches the Supreme
Court level all court sessions and hearings will be conducted obligatory in the presence of
OSCE observers and representatives of international independent media.

c) OSCE observers are obliged to submit recommendations based on their observation to the
judges involved in the process. The recommendations will be shared equally between all
the participating parties and held no judicial obligations for either of the parties.
d) The present regulations are only applicable in the case of public places and do not refer to
private property.
Solving discrepancies among parties
e)

According to Chapter III, point 1b, the avoidance of the conflict escalation would be possible in
circumstances of appealing to international resort structures.

f)

Possible solution contain the idea of demolishing the monument/memorial or its relocation to a
place mutually agreed by both parts, with reference to either local or international legislation, respecting
fundamental human rights.