DATABASE

Union of Secondary School Students of Serbia (UNSS

Unija srednjoškolaca Srbije (UNSS)

ABOUT US:

TYPE OF ENTITY

CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATION

AREAS OF WORK

Participation & activism

Education

Gender equality

Human rights

Connectivity and communication

CONTACT

Mina Radončić
00 381 69 108 09 98
mina.radoncic@unss.org.rs
minaradoncic@gmail.com

UNSS is a youth non-governmental organisation founded in December 2003 with the aim to represent and advocate secondary school students on a national and European level. UNSS is a national youth network that gathers more than 160 school student councils from over 60 cities in Serbia and represents about 80 000 secondary school students. UNSS is member of several national and international networks, such as NAPOR, KOMS, SAME, OBESSU and UNICEF. In the year 2009, UNSS managed to change the umbrella law on education, upgrading the role of secondary school students in decision making process.
Union of secondary school students of Serbia is the largest youth organisation in Serbia. Our organisation has been developing dynamically throughout the past 13 years and today we are an independent, representative entity made of high school students, led by the young, for the young.
One of the main aims UNSS stands up for respecting human rights, which is why we always strive towards organising and being included in projects related to human rights education and promotion. We had two campaigns about students\' rights: \"All different, all equal\" and \"Rights on the lights\". Apart from that, UNSS became a full member of OBESSU (Organizing Bureau of European School Students Unions) in 2006, and since then secondary schools students in Serbia have got the right to decide and create the European education and youth policy.
In 2010, we organised our first “Social day\" (Action day), which today represents the biggest project our organisation implements on a national level. Back then, we had about 1000 volunteers in 15 cities in Serbia. The project evolved into being organised in more than 40 cities in 2016 and will continue to grow through time.

UNSS’s main activities are consisted of closely collaborating with high school students on a national level. Apart from that, our projects include other youth representatives that are generally interested in advocating for rights of high school students and the improvement of high school education. The organisation is comprised of Serbian high school parliaments whose members are always invited to contribute to our work and present the problems they are facing at school. Apart from that, the organisation is led by a national team consisted of 60 local coordinators from different places in Serbia, who are in charge of implementing their projects, as well as promoting UNSS and our aims within their local communities.
Apart from being really active on a national level, through international projects as well as networks (such as SAME and OBESSU), we have been trying to promote the idea of youth activism and our work. Therefore, we always invite organisations of similar values to get in touch with us, since we believe it is easier to achieve our goals through common work. We aim towards being especially active within our region, seeing the similarities within the education systems and the problems our high school students are facing. We are always open for more networking opportunities and cooperating with people of our age and goals!