Connecting civil society in the protection of marginalized human rights in Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo
STEP Activities:
KORAK-HAPI-STEP is a coalition formed with goal of implementing a regional action to improve the status of human rights in Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo, in the areas of LGBT rights, strengthening the role of women in politics and public life, and monitoring court procedures for discrimination. It includes and connects a large number of NGOs and activists who share the values of the coalition.The key problems in realizing human rights, similar or the same in the three countries, connect activists, lawyers, and researchers, who are all motivated by the same goal – achieving full equality, tolerance, understanding, and cooperation. The existing intolerance, as yet elusive justice, and inequality are caused by untested or insufficiently robust mechanisms of human rights protection, the lack of implementation of positive regulations, and generally inadequate state response to human rights violations.
The Coalition was formed at a working meeting held in Belgrade in December 2012, at which were present representatives of 8 NGOs from Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo.
Together, these organizations are working on the project Connecting civil society in the protection of marginalized human rights in Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo with the support of the Delegation of the European Union in the Republic of Serbia.
Project Goal: Supporting civil society organizations and connecting them in solving key problems in the area of human rights, with specific emphasis on LGBT rights, the participation of women in political and public life, and trials for discrimination.
- Raising the capacity of civil organization societies through presentations and training – seminars about the state of human rights of LGBT persons, the participation of women in political and public life, and trials for discrimination, as well as about the possibilities of founding civil society organizations, and preparing and executing projects
- Publishing tri-lingual brochures about these three key themes of human rights law
- Monitoring trials for discrimination on the basis of pre-existing methodology
- Forming 3 regional networks which will work on advancing lawmaking and legal practice in key areas
- Cooperation with the governments of all three countries through meetings and panel discussions; working as a team to draft three strategic documents for the advancement of legal framework and practice
- Producing strategic documents on the advancement of LGBT persons, the equal participation of women in politics and public life, and for an adequate judicial response to cases of discrimination
- Raising awareness about the key marginalized human rights in the three countries through statements to the media, statements, and the website (korak-hapi-step.eu), founding 3 call centres where citizens will be able to report cases of discrimination and other human rights abuses
- Advertising competitions and allocating subgrants to newly formed CSOs for organizing projects in the three key areas
- Organizing 3 final regional conferences in Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo
- Various research in the area of protection from discrimination and protection of human rights, informal networking, media monitoring, following the state of reactions to human rights violations in the 3 countries
- Widening the regional network of those fighting against discrimination
