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Combat Homophobia, Human Rights Watch Tells Serbian President
Tadic should speak out against hate campaign
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LANGUAGE OPTIONS This article is only available in English. For online instant translation in selected other languages, see below. |
 ■ An example of the hate graffiti in Belgrade last summer. In English, it reads: “Serbia for Serbs, Out with Faggots”. photo courtesy GayEcho Website, Belgrade. |
NEW YORK, November 23, 2009 – Serbia’s government should quickly take visible steps to end a spate of violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, Human Rights Watch said in a letter sent November 16, 2009, to President Boris Tadic. Human Rights Watch called on the government to fully protect the rights of the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.
“Homophobic violence in recent months has threatened LGBT people’s access to basic freedoms,” said Boris O. Dittrich, advocacy director in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights program at Human Rights Watch. “Leading politicians should show the courage to condemn hatred and prevent abuse.”
The government cancelled a gay pride parade that had been scheduled for September 20, 2009, in Belgrade, saying it could not ensure the participants’ safety after graffiti and media statements by opponents of the march threatened parade participants with violence.
In February, the Director of the Sava Center, the conference, culture and business center in Belgrade, cancelled a news conference that had been scheduled there by the Gay Straight Alliance. The center’s director said that its use by an organization that promotes and advocates gay rights was inappropriate. When the organization held the news conference in Kragujevac in March, youth threw stones at the windows and doors of the building where it was held, shouting, “Faggots, we will kill you.”
And last December, it emereged that there were dozens of anti-gay hate groups on Facebook in Serbian many of which called for gays to be killed.
In the letter, Human Rights Watch urged President Tadic to denounce violence and discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. Human Rights Watch called on the government to work with Serbian LGBT rights defenders to ensure that a pride parade can be held in 2010 without fear of violent disruption.
Human Rights Watch urged the government to ensure prompt, effective investigations of all threats or allegations of violence against LGBT people – and to train prosecutors, police, and judges to respond effectively to violence against LGBT people, drawing on the expertise of Serbian human rights groups working on LGBT issues.
The New York-based international group also urged the Serbia government to institute training in schools about equality and the need to prevent discrimination, and to ensure that children can receive an education in a safe environment, free from bullying or discrimination. Human Rights Watch also called on the government to provide full funding and support for the new position of national commissioner for the protection of equality created by an omnibus anti-discrimination bill passed this year, and to make certain that the commissioner’s mandate includes LGBT issues.
“Freedoms on paper are worthless if the state cannot or will not protect people who are threatened when they try to exercise them,” Mr. Dittrich said. “Hatred and prejudice have kept too many Serbs from full participation in society for too long.”
SEE ALSO
Belgrade Pride: A Chance to Set the Fight for Gay Rights at a New
Level. Commentary by Nikolai Alekseev. Last Saturday
morning, I flew to Belgrade confident that there will be a gay
pride authorised and protected by the local authorities.
(UK Gay News, September 26, 2009)
Gay American Avoids Belgrade Thugs in City Street.
The chairperson of InterPride’s committee on International LGBTI
Human and Civil Rights spoke today of how he was followed on the
streets of central Belgrade yesterday evening and how it brought
home to him just how Serbian society had to live “in a constant
state of fear of thugs”. Openly gay William Urich, who was
attending Belgrade Pride as an official “observer” for InterPride,
told UK Gay News that he decided to go out and explore the
downtown area around 6pm.
(UK Gay News, September 21, 2009)
Belgrade Gay Pride Off, But Sweden Hosts ‘Mini-Pride’
at Ambassador’s Residence. There was not a gay person,
let alone a banner, in sight in the square in front of
the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade city centre at
lunchtime on Sunday. The Gay Pride Parade had been
banned by officialdom, or cancelled by the organisers,
depending on which ‘spin’ one subscribes to.
(September 19, 2009)
Serbian Football Authorities Have Change of Heart on Anti-Gay Graffiti in Belgrade. The football ‘fans’
whose signatures appeared on gay-hate graffiti in the city over the past two
weeks have now been condemned by the two clubs concerned, Red Star Belgrade
and Partizan.
(UK Gay News, August 12, 2009)
Outraged Gay Community in Belgrade Demand FIFA Action Over Hate Graffiti. Football fans’ graffiti calls for murder of gays. The failure of the
Football Association of Serbia and two clubs in Belgrade to distance
themselves from homophobic messages and calls to murder gay persons which
appear in graffiti across the city, bearing the ‘signature’ of fans from the Partizan and Red Star Belgrade has so outraged gays that they have written
to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the world
governing body for football, demanding action.
(UK Gay News, August 10, 2009)
Anti-discrimination Legislation Is Essential
for the Democratic Future of Serbia – Bishop.
Calls have been made today for the Serbian government to put back on
its agenda the proposed anti-discrimination legislation. The
draft legislation is said to have been withdrawn before the vote in
the Serbian Parliament following pressure from the Serbian Orthodox
Church.
(UK Gay News, March 9, 2009)
Transsexual Murdered in Belgrade.
A transsexual person was found dead in her flat in Belgrade at the
weekend, the Serbian LGBT group Queeria told
UK Gay News
last night.
(UK Gay News, January 20, 2009)
Two Anti Gay Hate Groups in Serbia Zapped by
Facebook. Two Serbian “gay
hate groups” have been removed by Facebook. Two days ago,
UK Gay News
revealed that the two Facebook groups, “Queeria, Pederi Marš iz
Srbije” and “СТОП ПЕДЕРИМА - КВИРИЈИ!” were posting death threats on
Serbian gay men and women – and calling for other criminal activity.
(UK Gay News, December 27, 2008)
Please Protect Us, Serbian Gays Plead: Death Threats, Attacks Faced
as Facebook Fails to Remove Two Hate Groups. Please
protect us. That is the plea from gays and lesbian in Serbia
to their government, the police and the wider world this holiday
season. (UK Gay News, December 26, 2008)
LINK
Belgrade Gay Pride Cancelled 24 Hours Before Event
Because of “Security Concerns”.
Nikolai Baev, a co-organiser of Moscow Pride,
arrived in Belgrade at lunchtime looking forward
to taking part in his very first Pride march.
But when he got to his hotel his excitement turned
to sorrow when he learned that tomorrow’s Belgrade
Pride march had been suddenly cancelled by the
organisers when the Serbian Government announced
this morning that the parade in the city centre
could not go ahead but offered an alternative
location in the suburbs. (UK Gay News,
September 19, 2009)
European Union Presidency Expresses Support for Belgrade Gay Pride.
Sweden, which currently holds the presidency of the European
Union, has today expressed its support for
Belgrade’s Gay Pride, due to be held on Sunday
(September 20). (UK Gay News, September
17, 2009)
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Posted: 23 Oct 2009 at 16:00 (UK time) |
