On the 10 November, the Subcommittee on Human Rights of the European Parliament organised a hearing on Human Rights in Western Balkans. Sanja Juras, member of the ILGA-Europe Board and from Croatia, attended and made a submission to the Members on behalf of ILGA-Europe.

***

Find more information about the hearing here.

Find more information about ILGA-Europe's work on the EU Enlargement here.

Read the submission here (also for download here):

In this speech I will focus on three main human rights issues for LGBT people in Western Balkans – hate crimes, freedom of assembly and discrimination.

Hate crimes against LGBT people are common occurrence in the region. Hate crimes against LGBT people in Serbia increased before and after the ban of Belgrade Pride this year. Last year 15 LGBT murders (mostly of transgender women) have been reported by LGBT organisations.

In most countries of the region, there is no hate crimes legislation. Only country that has such legislation – Croatia is not implementing it well due to lack of political will and homophobia in state institutions. Hate crimes against LGBT people are underreported due lack of trust in state institutions and fear of victimisation and violence.

Police misconduct against LGBT people is widespread.

Police officers insult victims of hate crimes and refuse to take complaints and investigate such crimes. For example, last year transgender woman was brutally attacked in Croatia. When she went to police station to report the incident, police officer told her that he would beat her u as well because of the way she looks and another police officer told her to “get out of the police station”.

Also, violations of human rights of LGBT people by police officers have been recorded. The most recent reported example, last August, is the case of a trans woman from Albania: the police made a false accusation without evidence, beat her up in the street and at the police station. Police officers then concealed evidence of assault, denied her access to medical care and forced her to sign documents without her consent. In another case in Croatia, the police harassed a lesbian woman for years, while trying to charge her for an alleged crime committed decades before. Police misconduct included intrusive questioning, violation of private life, psychological violence outside and at police stations, sexual harassment, abusive detention and deprivation of medical care.

In some countries there is no reporting of violence at all due to the lack of trust in police. When cases are reported to the police, officers often refuse to take reports and there is lack of investigation except in cases with high media attention.

Lack of political will to implement hate crime legislation can be also identified in hate speech by state officials, which is common occurrence in all countries. For example at the Parliamentary Committee meeting on the anti-discrimination law the Member of the Parliament of Macedonia from the governing party, a doctor by profession, stated that “homosexuals are sick people and should be medically treated, and not to be protected by law”.

In some countries there have even been no attempts to have LGBT public assemblies, especially in Bosnia after the Sarajevo Queer Festival of 2008 ended in severe violence.

In Serbia, after severe violence at streets of Belgrade in 2010, when 170 people were injured (mostly police officers), state institutions did not take adequate measures to deal with violent extremist groups and convict all people responsible for violence. This year, the State used the threats of violence by extremist groups and the situation in Kosovo to justify the banning of the Belgrade Pride. This was clear violation of the constitutional right to public assembly by the State. Unfortunately, the European Commission did not state this clearly in the Progress Report on Serbia.

LGBT people face discrimination in all aspects of life in all countries of the region. This includes recorded cases of discrimination at workplace, unlawful hospitalisations and medical treatment of homosexuality, discrimination in education, access to goods and services, etc.

Most countries of the region have anti-discrimination legislation including provisions that explicitly include sexual orientation, except Macedonia and Turkey. However, implementation of the existing legislation is failing due to lack of education and homophobia in state institutions. Recent cases from Croatia showed incompetence of Croatian judiciary to deal with such cases. In case of discrimination in education, judge victimised the witness that reported discrimination and demonstrated partiality during the hearings. She was not removed from the case and case ended with negative verdict of first degree. In another case of discrimination at workplace judge expressed openly sympathies with the employer, denied lawful right of NGOs to intervene into the proceedings and denied right of public at the hearing. She was removed from the case.

European Union has an important role in promotion and protection of human rights. It is important to support efforts of civil society in advocating for better protections of human rights of LGBT people. It is crucial that EC delegations include LGBT organisations in consultations at national level and support their activities. It is also significant to include and support activities related to protection of LGBT rights through programs like EIDHR and IPA. It is important to have fair reflection of violations of human rights of LGBT people in EC Progress Reports.