Feminist Peace Network

From Women in Black:
DRAFT PLATFORM ON THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS IN SERBIA

Noting that violence and a lack of tolerance and respect for others – especially
ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities – has become dominant in behavior and
communication in all segments of modern Serbian society, seminar participants
emphasized that the media and state institutions, especially The Prosecutors’
Office and the Ministry of Justice act with impermissible benevolence and
approval towards this social climate. They even build relationships with
political parties. In this way, these institutions express and confirm their
lack of readiness to confront the causes and consequences of the wars and war
crimes committed in our name in the former Yugoslavia.

Women activists with nongovernmental organizations that work for discontinuity
with the criminal past and for respect, protection, and the advancement of human
rights as an essential part of safeguarding the dignity and integrity of
individuals, groups, organizations, and society as a whole are especially
exposed to prosecution, public stigmatization, belittlement, and even physical
attacks.

Women who every day work and fight for their rights, the rights of other women,
human rights, and the rights of everyone who is subject to discrimination
marginalization, injustice, and violence­women who oppose the prevailing
norms­are subject to risks. Patriarchal structures isolate and silence human
rights defenders. The women in this group are exposed to an additional risk of
violence and injustice. Crimes committed against women defenders go unpunished.
This leads makes it possibility to exclude these women from communities and
society as a whole.

The acceptance of these risks for women human rights defenders becomes disregard
for their engagement in defending human rights. Traditionally, the media
considers asking most human rights organizations and networks, unions, and
political parties specific questions about women’s rights an unnecessary
division and disregard for “more universal and more important� issues. This
tendency isolates women’s human rights as well as their defenders.

The best protection for human rights defenders is the fulfillment of all human
rights, without hierarchy. Human rights defenders are endangered by an
atmosphere of growing political repression, authoritarianism, and militarization
of the state.

The government, NGOs, and other actors in civil society should protect human
rights defenders in keeping with The UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders
and other international instruments and mechanisms. Protection mechanisms
should confirm the principles of equality and non-discrimination. They should
forbid culture or religion to be used to justify inequality for women. Activists
should be protected in all fields of their work, in the public and private
sphere. All state and non-state actors should be involved with this.

Because of This, We Demand that the Government and Serbian Assembly:
Annul all laws and decisions which violate women’s and human rights and threaten
human rights defenders, actively apply the principles of The UN Declaration on
Human Rights Defenders, and make it possible for women to have equal rights to
fight for human rights and all other rights.

Effectively punish state and non-state actors who misuse criminal laws or use
the media or other groups to hurt human rights defenders or prevent them from
defending human rights and freedoms.

Secure means for the protection and promotion of human rights defenders and
their rights.

We Call on the UN and International Human Rights Groups to:
Create new mechanisms of citizens’ responsibility for violence against women and
women human rights defenders.
Support of the mandate of the Special Representative of the General-Secretary on
The Situation of Human Rights Defenders and assurance that women human rights
defenders are a focus of their work.
We call on the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to perform
monitoring. We call on state institutions, including national commissions for
human rights, the consistent application of UN recommendations about human
rights defenders and human rights, especially women human rights defenders.

We Call on Human Rights Organizations, Civil Society Movements and NGOs to:
Protect everyone who is under pressure because they defend human rights,
especially those who confront the past, work for the rights of sexual and gender
minorities, are members of an ethnic minority, or work in rural areas without
public protection.
Formulate programs and direct funds to the protection of human rights defenders
and respond to violence against women human rights defenders motivated by
gender.
Allow women human rights defenders their freedom of choice and consult both
women and men human rights defenders about issues of their security.

We Call on the Media to:
Respect the integrity of human rights defenders.
Not tolerate, but react to every violation of the human rights of human rights
defenders, in accordance with the journalistic code of practice and professional
ethics.
Show special sensitivity to women human rights defenders and those whose rights
they support.

Belgrade
June 14, 2007

Women in Black­Belgrade
Yukom, The Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, Belgrade
The Anti-Trafficking Center (ATC), Belgrade

Joined by:
The Women in Black Network­Serbia from Bor, Vranje, Vrbas, Vlasotince, Velika
Plana, Dimitrovgrad, Zaje ar, Kikinda, Kraljevo, Kruševac, Leskovac, Novi Sad,
Novi Pazar, Novi Be ej, Niš, Pan evo, and Tutin.
Hera Women’s Club, Ba ka Topola; The Youth Initiative for Human Rights,
Belgrade; The Incest Trauma Center (ITC), Belgrade; The Autonomous Women’s
Center (A C), Belgrade; Voice of Difference, Belgrade; The Reconstruction
Women’s Fund, Belgrade; Feminist ’94, Belgrade; The Queeria Center, Belgrade;
The Roma Women’s Network, Belgrade; Hora­A Group for the Emancipation of Women,
Valjevo; The Belgrade Center for Human Rights; Urban In, Novi Pazar; and Zorana
Å ija ki.

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