Unfortunately, not even this December 10, Human Rights Day 1997, is cause for celebration. We mark this day with concern for the situation of people and their rights in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and other states of the former SFRY. We find ourselves in an environment where human dignity is valued less and less. Civic and political rights are still denied and threatened by high-handed authorities, while the judiciary lacks the power to protect them. Economic and social rights are increasingly difficult to realize under widespread conditions of poverty and decline. Large groups of people, among whom refugees are especially conspicuous, live without regulated status in the harshest conditions. Violence and discrimination are still employed instead of democratic agreement to try and resolve the problems of national and other minorities.
The Belgrade Center for Human Rights is especially concerned that all this is taking place alongside the growing indifference and passivity of the population. Citizens under these circumstances become downcast subjects who, instead of demanding their rights from authorities and other power holders, request from them mercy, favors and privileges. The status of human rights will not improve until each person understands that they are entitled to these rights by the simple fact that they are human beings, and that the best way to protect their own rights is to maintain and vigorously defend the rights of others.
