Croatia
May 13, 2019

Mario Mazic, 31, watched the gap between the former Yugoslavia, which is his home region, and other parts of the world widen during the 1990s. At the age of four, he left his hometown as a refugee. Much later, he returned and witnessed how extreme conflict and its legacy prevented the resultant changes in government from taking effect.

Mazic earned a BA in International Relations from Libertas International University in Zagreb, and has taken undergraduate courses also at the University of Zagreb, University of Oslo, Northwestern University and University of Belgrade. In 2012 he was a Fellow in Historical Dialogue and Accountability at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University.

He saw how the transitions from a single- to multi-party system and from a controlled to a more liberal economy were impeded by violence across the countries which emerged from the fighting in the former Yugoslavia; he also saw how many politicians and citizens from other regions considered the era to be one of optimism and prosperity.

The suffering caused during the recovery from violence in Croatia led Mazic to work where he could further the causes of democracy-building and protecting the fundamental liberties which his fellow citizens had deprived from them. In order to do so, he worked with numerous human rights organizations, foundations and movements in Croatia and the region. In 2009, he established the Croatian chapter of a regional non-governmental organization, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR). YIHR promotes democracy by helping victims of human rights abuses and developing justice across the region through reconciliation; it gives young people a way to involve themselves in decision-making processes. He has been an active advocate for the establishment of a regional fact-finding commission ‘RECOM’. Mazic is a member of the Board of the Humanitarian Law Center in Kosovo, the European Grassroots Antiracist Movement in France and Arterarij in Croatia, an organization promoting human rights and tolerance through culture and arts.

Having witnessed how a subservient democratic political culture developed after the turbulence of the transition from the former Yugoslavia to Croatia, Mazic views injustices as mandates for action. The Obama Foundation Scholars Program provides him with a way to hone the leadership skills to know how to further the development of Croatia and strengthen its democracy.

After he graduates from the program, Mazic will return to Croatia and expand the reach of his work by focusing on the intersection of democratization, state-building and development.

“I am very excited about studying and working together with an extraordinary group of young leaders who already have great results and the rich experience of working towards social change. This group, I am convinced, will create a unique environment for learning and for development of our action plans for the future.”