Organizations gathered around the Three Freedoms Platform strongly condemn the arrest of peace activists Aida Ćorović and Jelena Jaćimović, who were brutally detained by plainclothes police while protesting against the mural of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić. On International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism, the arrest of human rights activists and taking the side of convicted war criminals shows the true political orientation of the authorities in Serbia.

We remind you that a gathering organized by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights in order to remove the mural of Ratko Mladić was illegally banned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs due to alleged danger to the safety of people and property. Minister Aleksandar Vulin then issued a statement in which he characterized the planned removal as “hypocritical, vile and driven by evil intentions”. On the day of the originally scheduled protest, and according to eyewitnesses, members of the Ministry of the Interior stopped and identified citizens who found themselves in the immediate vicinity of the mural.

We remind you that the arrest of Maja Stojanović, now the executive director of Civic Initiatives, which took place 14 years ago after a similar action against Ratko Mladić, ended with her being declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, and the President of Serbia paying the then imposed misdemeanor fine. The repetition of such catastrophic mistakes by Serbian authorities represents a step backwards, and shows that Serbia is moving in the direction of celebrating crimes, not democratization.

In its statement, the Ministry of the Interior stated that “there are many who would like to see pictures of broken Serb heads coming from Belgrade.” Instead, tonight in Belgrade, we are witnessing a brutal demonstration of force against peace activists by non-uniformed persons, in order to defend the politics of war-mongering.

1. Civic Initiatives
2. Youth Initiative for Human Rights
3. Center for Cultural Decontamination
4. Initiative for Social and Economic Rights – A11
5. Belgrade Center for Security Policy
6. Trag Foundation
7. Slavko Curuvija Foundation
8. Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
9. Belgrade Center for Human Rights
10. Partners Serbia
11. Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM
12. Women in Black
13. Autonomous Women’s Center
14. New Optimism
15. Policy Center
16. Serbia on the Move
17. Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability – CRTA
18. Our Endowment (Naša zadužbina)
19. Catalyst Balkans
20. National Coalition for Decentralization
21. Transparency Serbia

Acting on the complaint of the Belgrade Center for Human Rights and A 11 – Initiative for Economic and Social Rights, the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality determined that Raiffeisen Bank a.d. Belgrade, violated the provisions of Article 6 of the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination of the Republic of Serbia when it refused to open accounts for persons with granted asylum, ie recognized refugee status in Serbia. In the opinion, the Commissioner stated that it is not possible to exclude in advance the possibility of opening bank accounts for certain categories of persons solely based on citizenship, i.e. the country of origin of a natural person or nationality. This is a new decision of the Commissioner in proceedings on complaints against banks, since it was previously established in early July that Banca Intesa discriminated against refugees and asylum seekers.

After the information that some banks refuse to open a bank account for persons with granted asylum in Serbia, with Iranian origin, Initiative A 11 and the Belgrade Center for Human Rights conducted testing of discrimination in Raiffeisen Bank in May 2021. As the discriminatory situation was confirmed during testing, we filed a complaint due to discrimination. Namely, in this case, banks refused to open accounts to persons who have an ID card issued by the Asylum Office – Internal Affairs Serbia with recognized refugee status, and thus intend to settle permanently in Serbia, with the excuse of the bank’s internal procedures. The Commissioner states that during this procedure Raiffeisen Bank did not submit evidence from which it would be established that this denial was for justified reasons, i.e. to open an account for a person of Iranian origin with granted asylum in Serbia. The Commissioner states that the refusal to open an account, i.e. to establish or terminate a business relationship is possible only if the bank has determined that there is a high risk in establishing a business relationship, and could not apply intensified actions and measures in accordance with the law and the bank’s internal act.

The Commissioner also recommended that the bank, without negative generalizations, in each specific case, assess and consider the requirements for opening an account and not violate the regulations on the prohibition of discrimination. The Commissioner notes that by its actions the bank indisputably denied the application of the corpus of rights guaranteed by the Law on Asylum and Temporary Protection, but also by the Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees from 1951, such as the right to access the labor market, integration assistance, property rights, and social security.

The Belgrade Center for Human Rights and Initiative A 11 welcome the Commissioner`s response to the joint complaint and point out the importance that in any future similar situation, banks must justify their actions without flat and discriminatory assessments, and that regardless of procedures, rules and risk assessments, the bank must operate in accordance with the laws of Serbia. We also remind you of the stand taken by the National Bank of Serbia after the request for an opinion sent by the Belgrade Center for Human Rights at the beginning of the year, stating that regulations in the field of banking do not provide grounds for excluding the possibility of establishing business relations with the entire category of persons, with a reminder of the provisions of national legislation concerning the prohibition of discrimination.

The Equality Commissioner Opinion and recommendation is here in serbian.

The National Bank of Serbia response to BCHR’s request is here in serbian.

Organizations gathered around the “Three Freedoms” platform caution the National Assembly and the Serbian public that the Law on Protection against Noise in the Environment, adopted yesterday in the parliamentary procedure, is not in compliance with the Law on Public Assembly and international standards governing the right to freedom of assembly. At a time when a large number of public debates are taking place in Serbia on changes to the laws that affect the rule of law and human rights, leaving a very short deadline for analyzing regulations and sending comments, the Serbian government’s proposal restricting the right to public assembly went almost unnoticed.

Article 20 of the Law stipulates that local self-government decides on holding gatherings that may exceed the limit values of noise indicators. Additionally, the deadline for registration of such gatherings is 20 days. Local self-government, by a decision, regulates the streets, parts of streets and settlements, and other locations intended for such gatherings. This decision is contrary to the Law on Public Assembly, which prescribes that the deadline for reporting a public assembly is five days before the time set for the beginning of the assembly. The Law on Public Assembly regulates in detail the gathering place, ways, and conditions for restricting public gatherings, so that the place of gathering could be any place that is accessible unconditionally or under the same conditions to an individually indefinite number of persons.

The introduction of additional obligations for organizers of gatherings towards local self-governments, as well as extended deadlines for registration of gatherings, significantly complicates the holding of public gatherings. The proposer of the Law in the justification of the Proposal did not explain the reason for setting the deadline of 20 days, which is extremely long, especially taking into account the upcoming election campaign in 2022. Putting local self-government units in charge of deciding on holding of public gatherings that potentially exceed the noise limit, as well as on the places of these public gatherings, leaves room for abuse of noise protection regulations to limit political rallies.

Justifying this by protecting the environment, the Law also limits the ability of the participants to convey their message loudly, which means that the restrictions do not only apply to the use of sound systems but also any other way of making noise (shouting slogans, banging on pots, etc.). The Law doesn’t make a clear distinction between cultural and sporting events and political gatherings and regulates the confiscation of the object of the commission of the offense (speakers, megaphones, drums, etc.).

We request that the mentioned Article 20 of the Law on Protection against Noise in the Environment be aligned with the Law on Public Assemblies in terms of the deadline for registration of the gathering and the place of the gathering.

Freedom of public assembly implies that all peaceful assemblies are allowed. Restrictions on gatherings are not only a direct ban on a gathering but also any excessive and unnecessary imposition of obligations on the organizers of the gathering, which makes it difficult to organize the gathering. The adoption of regulations contrary to the already existing Law on Public Assembly creates a collision of legal norms that are detrimental to the freedom of public assembly as one of the basic civil and political right

The Three Freedoms Platform aims to contribute to the democratization of society, the rule of law, and the active participation of citizens through the protection and promotion of freedom of association, assembly, and information. The platform consists of:

• Autonomous Women’s Center
• Belgrade Center for Security Policy
• Belgrade Center for Human Rights
• Catalyst Balkans
• Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA)
• Center for Cultural Decontamination
• Center for Practical Policy
• Civic Initiatives
• Helsinki Committee for Human Rights
• A11 – Economic and Social Rights Initiative
• Youth Initiative for Human Rights
• Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights-YUCOM
• National Coalition for Decentralization
• Our Endowment
• New Optimism
• Partners Serbia
• Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation
• Serbia on the Move
• Trag Foundation
• Transparency Serbia