Reconciliation and reinforce society’s experiences in conflict resolution and inter-communal reconciliation, showing the diversity and historic tolerance among religions. By supporting joint work among religious communities in addressing issues of common concern, such as improving the legal framework on religious freedoms, the project contributed to the creation of an atmosphere of mutual understanding and tolerance. Through inter-faith forums that were financially and logistically supported by the OSCE, joint actions were taken by religious communities to solve common problems, such as utility costs of religious facilities and maintenance of graveyards. As a result of the inter-faith forums, numerous municipalities nominated contact points for religious issues who held regular meetings. Over a period of three years, approximately 30 such meetings were organized by local stakeholders themselves, showing that the ownership of the process had been localized. Some municipalities took the initiative to hold roundtables on inter-ethnic and inter-faith tolerance with youth and women, as well as to organize football tournaments, to hold exhibitions, and to clean graveyards and religious sites. Improvements have been seen in the reactions of religious communities to incidents, such as the spraying of graffiti, hate speech, or damage to religious sites. They now publicly condemn such actions, and municipalities now display a much greater willingness to support religious communities. To ensure sustainability, the OSCE organized workshops with religious representatives to build their capacity on a number of topics, such as international human rights standards and gender 83

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