Three two-day workshops for young refugees and young people from Serbia were held in a period from 6 to 21 April in the Human Rights House in Belgrade. The workshops are part of the CoolTour Tube program which is part of the project Support to Refugees and Asylum-Seekers in Serbia supported by the UNHCR. (more…)
The House of Human Rights and Democracy condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the actions of Belgrade police during their securing of the “1 of 5 million” rallies on Saturday and Sunday. Preventing disorder and protecting people and property are the primary tasks of police when it comes to securing public assemblies. Their inadequate assessment of the predictable security risk posed by protesters entering the RTS building, as well as the lack of a timely reaction, contributed to the escalation of violence. Therefore, the subsequent use of force by the police, which participants of the rally have been recorded and published, can be deemed disproportionate.
Platform of Organizations working with the UN Human Rights Mechanisms has organized a conference on the occasion of the publication of the Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer. Mr. Melcer addressed the conference via video message, pointing out in his report the unsatisfactory level of compliance with international standards, inadequate protection of victims of torture, as well as insufficient prevention in order to reduce cases of torture and abuse in the Republic of Serbia.
The report notes a number of problems that have been repeatedly pointed out to national authorities by other international bodies monitoring the extent to which Serbia fulfills its absolute international legal obligation to ban torture and other forms of abuse.
We are happy to introduce the first # YouthBook of our Youth Program!
#YouthBook is an opportunity to get to know us, get answers to questions about who our team is, what we do, what projects we have successfully completed, what we are just getting started, what we want, what we aspire to and why we invite you to get involved in our activities!
You can download #YouthBook HERE.
Yesterday we presented our two annual reports: “Human Rights in Serbia 2018” and “The Right to Asylum in the Republic of Serbia 2018”. (more…)
Platform of Organizations for Cooperation with UN Human Rights Mechanisms has submitted an alternative report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
Platform hopes that the CEDAW Committee in its examination of the Republic of Serbia will give recommendations while raising the issues of:
• Conducting gender impact assessment of austerity measures on women’s human rights.
• Defining criminal act of Sexual intercourse with a helpless person as a qualified act of Rape in the Criminal Code of Serbia.
• Working continually and systematically on stopping gender-stereotyping and patriarchal labeling of women/girls by the governmental officials.
• Separating women’s status of legal capacity (women put under guardianship) from informed consent about sexual and reproductive rights, and prohibit forced abortions, administration of contraceptives without informed consent, forced sterilization and other forced treatments that constitute inhuman and degrading treatment.
• Ensuring adequate, accessible, and functioning services for women with disabilities survivors of violence.
• Providing organizational change and capacity building to remedy difficulties in ensuring adequate police intervention in domestic violence cases.
• Providing functional mechanisms for participation of women from vulnerable groups in creation, implementation, and assessment of public policies, and participation in public and political life on an equal basis with others.
• Ensuring protection of women’s right to health and access to free prenatal and maternal care for Roma women without documents.
• Improving position of refugee women, including protection from violence, respect to the principle of granting special measures for protection of women in the asylum procedure, ensure integration in the society’s economic, social, and cultural life.
• Combating invisibility and stigmatization of intersex persons, ensuring adequate medical, psychological, and social support to intersex persons and their families, adopting adequate protocols and annual data gathering, amending legislation on personal documents and introduce ‘other’ as option when registering the sex of the child in registry books.
Report can be downloaded HERE.
