Russian parents of LGBT children march in Stockholm
Pride 2013.
are met with much resistance from the local population and authorities.
Too often, the officials fail to bring perpetrators of
human rights violations to justice, thereby denying
the victims their rights to justice and redress. There
is a great need for independent monitoring of human rights, but the voice of civil society is sometimes at risk of being lost or silenced in the so called
bigger dialogue challenges between state officials
and the EU.
The Western Balkans was one of the first regions
that Civil Rights Defenders began its work in after
the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The organisation has offices in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina,
Kosovo, Serbia and also works with partners in
Montenegro and Macedonia.
The work we do in the Western Balkans.
Albania: Justice for vulnerable groups is the
focal point of Civil Rights Defenders’ work in Albania. With our partners we provide legal support
for vulnerable communities such as the Roma and
Egyptian, and persons with disabilities. Training,
support and capacity building for the LGBT community is central to our programme in Albania. We
also monitor and test the work of independent institutions and the judiciary while at the same time
advocating for changes in laws and practice.
Bosnia & Herzegovina: In Bosnia and
Herzegovina we strive to secure local mechanisms
to supress those who exert pressure on journalists
and media. We also work to advance the implementation of ethical standards through journalistic
self-regulation and secure the delivery of accurate
information about war crimes and on-going war
crimes trials in an effort to enhance the processes
of transitional justice. Together with our partners,
we monitor the compliance of human rights standards in prisons and closed institutions while also
Police crackdown against demonstrators in Bosnia & Herzegovina monitored by Civil Rights
Defenders Sarajevo office.
empowering members of the LGBT community so
they can claim their rights. We advocate for proper
legal and practical regulation of hate speech and
hate crimes and work to strengthen the capacities
of human rights activists, minority groups and freedom of speech advocates.
Kosovo: In Kosovo there is little monitoring of
government institutions and authorities. Our main
priority is therefore to strengthen the organisations
that monitor implementation of human rights standards and demand accountability from the authorities. We observe the situation in prisons and mental
health facilities and support the provision of legal
aid and counselling to the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian minorities. Civil Rights Defenders continues to
bring attention to cases of corruption and monitor
the effectiveness of anti-corruption laws. Bringing
accountability for war crimes still remains firmly in
focus, as a result of our efforts to assist victims of
war crimes and their families.
Serbia: In Serbia we secure access to justice
through legal aid for the most vulnerable and
marginalised groups in society including: ethnic
minorities, families of victims of war crimes, parents of children with disabilities, journalists under
threat and human rights defenders at risk. The legal empowerment of these groups is coupled with
strong advocacy to achieve equal access to justice
for all the groups in the society. We are voicing
concerns and requesting accountability for growing discrimination and violence against individuals
from Roma ethnic minority and LGBT people. We
advocate for the improvements of the overall media
landscape to secure the cornerstones of democracy
– freedom of speech and media. With our partners
we are opening public debates on the most difficult
issues (war crimes, corruption, lack of judicial independence) and securing platforms for independent,
critical voices.
16
The main achievements in the Western
Balkans in 2013.
In addition to securing access to justice for thousands of people belonging to the most vulnerable
groups in the Western Balkans, several strategic
cases were delivered to the European Court for Human Rights with applicants winning in several cases
represented by our partners. This brought about
crucial changes and reforms to judicial practices. In
Albania, we brought several strategic cases to the
attention of the Courts challenging the weaknesses
of the legal system in order to ensure equal access
to rights for all of its citizens. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, we secured the delivery of accurate information essential for the on-going war crimes trials.
In Kosovo, more than a dozen tenders for public
procurements were cancelled and re-tendered as
a result of civil society organisations’ uncovering
corruption and irregularities in the process. The
European Court of Human Rights found that Serbia violated Article 10 of the European Convention
on Human Rights because the National Security
Agency failed to provide information in line with
the law regarding Free Access to Information on the
monitoring of individuals in 2005. Our local partners brought the case to ECtHR.
On a regional level we managed to significantly
eleate the issue of discrimination, hate speech
v
and hate crimes against Roma and LGBT persons,
and helped build and strengthen coalitions of civil
society organisations that systematically work to
challenge these issues. In November of 2013, Civil
Rights Defenders supported a documentary play
“Seven” which was rolled out throug hout the region and looked at gender-based violence through
the eyes of seven activists from around the world.
Under the human rights defenders at risk program
three activists were equipped with the Natalia
bracelet security alarm system with the hope of additional activists being added in the future.