17 July 2001 – The Belgrade Center for Human Rights expresses concern that, in the debate over the introduction of religious education into state schools, the right to freedom of religion and belief has been wrongly interpreted. Freedom of religion and belief consists of an individual’s right to profess whichever religion they choose, as well as the right to profess no religion. This right also includes parents’ rights to educate their children according to their own religious beliefs and the religion they themselves choose. (more…)

17 July 2001 – The Belgrade Center for Human rights is pleased to learn of the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In December of 2000, FR Yugoslavia became a signatory to this convention, enacted at the UN diplomatic conference in Rome on the 17^th of July 1998. The statute has so far been signed by 139 countries. (more…)

2 July 2001 – The Belgrade Center for Human rights harshly condemns the attacks on citizens of homosexual and lesbian orientation who peacefully assembled in Belgrade on the 30^th of June to celebrate International Gay and Lesbian Pride Day. The Belgrade Center for Human Rights expresses its concern over the extremely violent and intolerant attitude of one section of our society towards members of sexual minorities, and also its concern over the fact that the police did not fulfil their duty to protect groups which were performing their right to peaceful assembly. The fifty police officers dispatched by the Secretariat for Internal Affairs were not enough to protect the participants of this event. (more…)

4 June 2001 – The Belgrade Center for Human rights is pleased to learn that, on the 22nd of June 2001, the Federal Assembly approved an Act concerning the ratification of the First and Second Optional Protocols of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR). The First Optional Protocol of the CCPR (1966) allows individuals to complain to the Human Rights Committee about violations of a right guaranteed by the Covenant, committed by States party to the Covenant. The Second Optional Protocol forbids party States from using the death penalty and obliges them to remove this penalty from their laws. (more…)

18 February 2001 – Terrorists recruited from amongst the nastiest and most unreasonable Albanians from around the world every day fill us with even greater disgust. Their sinister attacks on innocent people in Kosovo and Southern Serbia demonstrate no only their contempt for human rights, but also their desire to provoke new human tragedies for all residents of that region. Through these acts, these terrorists in fact align themselves with all opponents of democracy in Serbia, interpreting the rule of law as a weakness which they wish to take advantage of in order to achieve their inhumane goals. (more…)

11 February 2001 – The Belgrade Center for Human Rights harshly condemns the attack on Cucija Nikolić, 28, a Roma from Kovin, which took place on the night between the 2nd and 3rd of February. According to Friday’s newspaper reports, Marko Marković, Vladimir Krstin, Dejan Lukša, Žika aka Ubica (‘Killer’), and lawyer Zoran Koščal inflicted serious bodily injuries on Nikolić, because he was in a relationship with Koščal’s daughter. There are also indications that the police detective Zoran Despenić knew of the attackers’ intentions as, before they took Nikolić, the detective told him they only wanted to talk to him. However the police officer did nothing to prevent the attack on Nikolić. (more…)