A conference "Young Men And Violence: Pathways To Change" was held in Zagreb on December 14th. The purpose of the conference was to promote gender equality norms, healthy lifestyles and non-violent behavior of young people, and is a part of a broader project called "The Young Men Initiative".

The Young Men Initiative - (YMI), Initiative of young men for the prevention of gender based violence in the region, is a project conducted by an international humanitarian organization CARE International North-West Balkans and nine international and local partner organizations (from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia), one of which is CESI, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway. Researchers  and experts in the field of gender equality and violence prevention participated on the conference.

John Crownover from CARE International together with Vlatka Matković-Puljić and Natko Gereš from HUHIV presented a project "The Young Men Initiative".

Martina Prpić from the Institute for Social Research, presented the results of research on gender equality conducted on a sample of more than 600 high school students.

Nataša Bijelić, sociologist from CESI, presented the preliminary results of research on men and gender equality - IMAGES (International Men and Gender Equality Survey). Research conducted on a sample of 1500 men aged 18-60 years covered various aspects of life of men, from childhood, education, sexuality, parenting, relationships in the household to violence and hazardous behavior. The attitudes of respondents mainly support the stereotipical male role, 61% believed that being a man means being tough, while 56% say that if someone insults them, they will defend their reputation by using force. 93% are satisfied with the division of household chores, whereas the chores they most often do are paying bills and repairs around the house. The complete research results and comparison of results in Croatia with those from other countries (Brasil, Chile, Mexico, Norway ...) will be available to the public in mid-next year.

Gary Barker and Nataša Bijelić

Gary Barker from the International Research Center for Women in Washington and Fabio Veran from the Institute Promundo from Brazil spoke about the european and world perspectives of involving boys/young men in struggle against gender based violence.

A project done by "Be a man!" clubs from the cities participating in the project "The Young Men Initiative" was also presented on the conference. Through the messages "Be a man - fall in love, be a man - do not be violent" young people promote healthy lifestyles, and both boys and girls are actively involved  in club's activities.

Measures and policies to combat gender based and peer violence from the perspective of working with young men and boys were presented at the end of the conference.

After Zagreb, the conference "Young Men And Violence: Pathways To Change" was held in Sarajevo and Belgrade, in cooperation with local partner organizations.