October 05, 2021

Foster human rights in Serbia and the Balkans

topic:	Human Rights
tags:	#Serbia, #human rights, #democracy, #NGO, #Montenegro
located:	Serbia
by:	Quinta Thomson

The violent protests that erupted earlier this month in Montenegro ended in tear gas fired by the police, multiple arrests and at least 20 injured people.

Since Montenegro’s independence from Serbia in 2006, pro-independence Montenegrins have been advocating for separation from Serbian power and the Serbian Orthodox Church, which played a key role last year in toppling a long-ruling pro-Western government in Montenegro. 

The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights is a non-partisan, non-political and non-profit association of citizens concerned with the advancement of theory and practice of human rights. It assembles persons of various professions and backgrounds, including jurists, attorneys, sociologists, economists, writers, teachers, students and entrepreneurs. 

the Centre's overarching goal lies in the advancement of knowledge in the field of human rights and humanitarian law, the development of democracy and strengthening of the rule of law and the civil society in Serbia and other countries in transition from authoritarianism to democracy. 

Encouraged by the core belief that all human being must be equal before the law, that democracy implies full participation of citizens and that civil society must be constantly developed and defended, the Centre is an incredibly important cornerstone in Serbian democracy.

Its most important fields of work lie in education, research and publishing, legal assistance (particularly to asylum seekers) and the monitoring of human rights in Serbia. An example of their vital work is in their Human Rights Reports, which are published yearly to share comparisons of domestic laws and regulations with international standards.

The report also highlights the most important issues impacting the state of human rights in Serbia at the time. Access to these reports is highly significant for educating citizens on their rights and awareness of human rights violations, and can ultimately reverberate across the entire region. 

To support this organisation you can share its work on Facebook or twitter or simply visit its website to learn more about the human rights situation in Serbia and what you can do to help.

Image by: Tanja Žarić.