Vesna Teršelič (born in 1962) is a peace activist who founded the Anti-War Campaign of Croatia. In 1998, she was joint recipient of the Right Livelihood Award along with Katarina Kruhonja of the Centre for Peace, Non-violence and Human Rights, Osijek.

Biography

Teršelič, an ethnic Slovene born in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the are ...

, lives in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...

, where she works as a peace activist. Vesna Teršelič, together with other her friends, organized the Croatian Anti-War Campaign in 1991 to prevent war conflicts on the territories of the

former Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...

. As Teršelič said: "We initiated the anti-war ampaignon July 4, 1991, which means that we did it too late, because the whole previous year... passed in hope that surely the politicians were doing something in order to reach an agreement in a diplomatic way, reaching a new form of arrangement between

Croats The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, ...

and

Serbs in Croatia The Serbs of Croatia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", Срби у Хрватској, Srbi u Hrvatskoj) or Croatian Serbs ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", хрватски Срби, hrvatski Srbi) constitute the largest national minority in Croa ...

." They also launched the magazine ''Arkzin'' in September 1991 to campaign for peace and research war conflict aspects. She became director of Documenta - Center for Dealing with the Past. In 2017, Teršelič signed the

Declaration on the Common Language The Declaration on the Common Language ( sh, Deklaracija o zajedničkom jeziku / ) was issued in 2017 by a group of intellectuals and NGOs from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia who were working under the banner of a projec ...

of the Croats,

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...

, Bosniaks and

Montenegrins Montenegrins ( cnr, Црногорци, Crnogorci, or ; lit. "Black Mountain People") are a South Slavic ethnic group that share a common Montenegrin culture, history, and language, identified with the country of Montenegro. Genetics Accordi ...

References

External links

*
"Vježbanje nasilja, vježbanje samouništenja"
— an interview with Vesna Teršelič in ''

Zarez ''Zarez'' ( en, The Comma) was a Croatian biweekly newsprint magazine covering literature, arts, culture and current affairs. History and profile ''Zarez'' was established in 1999 after a group of intellectuals decided to break away from the g ...

'' 66 {{DEFAULTSORT:Terselic, Vesna 1962 births Living people People from Ljubljana People from Zagreb Croatian people of Slovenian descent Croatian activists Signatories of the Declaration on the Common Language