His Excellency, Boris Tadić, President of Serbia
His Excellency, Mirko Cvetković, Prime Minister
His Excellency, Vuk Jeremić, Minister of Foreign Affairs
His Excellency, Svetozar Čiplić, Minister of Human and Minority Rights


Brussels, March 6th, 2009


Your Excellencies,

As a human rights NGO working for equality and fundamental freedoms for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people we attach great importance to the introduction of comprehensive antidiscrimination legislation in all candidate and potential candidate countries for EU membership.
Hence, we write to express our concerns about the withdrawal of the anti-discrimination law from the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.

The Ministry of Human and Minority Rights together with the Coalition Against Discrimination prepared the final draft of the anti-discrimination law, which provides protection on all grounds of discrimination. The law has been recommended by the relevant parliamentary committees and a number of experts from the field of human rights. It has further been confirmed by the Government of Serbia and sent for the adoption in the National Assembly. However, just a day before the opening of the parliamentary session on the 5th of March, during which the current draft law was to be discussed and voted, it has been withdrawn from the parliamentary procedure.

According to our information the request for the withdrawal came from several religious communities, namely from Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), Roman Catholic Church, Islamic Community in Serbia, Jewish Community in Serbia, their main objection being against Article 18, which regulates the issue of discrimination in the field of religious rights and Article 21, which states the prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity.
As you will know, LGBT persons face discrimination, are denied basic human rights in their everyday life and are regularly subjected to violence in Serbia (e.g. violent attacks during March 2008 Eurovision Song Contest and during September 2008 Belgrade Queer Festival; death threats and incitements to violence against LGBT activists through Facebook and other internet networks; the murder of a transgender sex worker, Minja Kocis).
We want to remind you that the anti-discrimination law is intended to fill the gaps identified by the European Commission 2008 progress report on Serbia where it underlines that “A comprehensive anti-discrimination law has not yet been adopted. In practice, there is still widespread discrimination, primarily against national minorities, Roma or women as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.” The adoption of the law also flows from the international human rights obligations of the Serbian Government as well as the obligation to transpose the EU acquis into national legislation as a precondition for EU membership.
Considering the issues mentioned above and in view of the Government’s stated commitment to EU membership we urge the Government of Serbia to send the current draft anti-discrimination law back to the Parliament without changing the provisions prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity as well as on all other grounds.

Yours sincerely,

Maxim Anmeghichean, Programmes Director, ILGA-Europe


CC. Mr. Ivica Dačić , First Deputy Prime Minister
Mr. Božidar Đelić, Deputy Prime Minister
Mr. Rasim Ljajić, Minister of Labour and Social Policy
Ms. Milica Delević, Head of the EU Integration Office