Pure Elegance & Perfect Training

The Group for Conceptual Politics (GCP) is a non-governmental and non-profit association established in 2011 in Novi Sad, Serbia. It is dedicated to enhancing human rights, democracy and civil society. The basic area of activity of the association is the education of citizens in the domain of self-organization, activism, self-employment, participation in local political processes, housing and free access to information.

The Group is actively working to encourage citizens participation in the development of the local community and cooperation with local government institutions. The Group’s work is dedicated to educating and sensitizing citizens of Serbia of their human and political right to participate directly in local community, in public matters and in local political processes, aside from indirect participation by elected representatives. Therefore, it educates and encourages citizens of different generations to become active contributors to democratization of Serbian society, joint with an attempt to make civic engagement sustainable, innovative and effective.

With its work, the Group also constantly search for examples of autonomous self-organization of citizens, which gives them opportunity for sustainable and dignified democratic life and way out from clientelism and corruption to which they are constantly exposed to. This work is done through different formats such are: educational workshops, campaigns, discussion groups, common actions with citizens and negotiations with authorities. To that matter, the Group actively nourishes democratic values guaranteed by constitutional and legal framework of the country. It also advocates increasing the transparency and accountability of public authorities and opening its institutions towards citizens and civil society organizations through negotiations and partnerships. Moreover, it continuously manages the process of monitoring accountability especially of local community institutions and local self-government in Novi Sad and in municipalities in Vojvodina province and delivers results publicly through its various channels of communication and dissemination – printed and online community media. The vision of the association is to reach democratic society of a strong civic sector, active citizens who exercise their rights, and responsible public authorities in Serbia.

Geographical reach of the Group’s activities ranges from local and national to regional (former Yugoslav) and international levels. In professional and political terms, the Group is committed to nonparty association of citizens, to empowering and connecting civil society organizations as an active correction of public authority. The main areas of activity of the Group include: a) sustainable housing which has been the main focus of the organization during period 2011-2016, now transformed into professionalized but still unsustainable area of citizens’ lives in local communities; b) enhancing direct participation of citizens in local government institutions, governing public interest and decision-making in political processes; c) political education of citizens through commonly organized actions for realization of their rights to local self-management; d) creating sustainable informal learning environment for citizens and civil society organizations; e) monitoring of local government institutions accountability in Novi Sad, Vojvodina province and Serbia; and f) promoting policy of civil society in Serbia.