Mesečna arhiva: December, 2022

Human Rights Series
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Great technological leaps have made organizing public gatherings much easier while making them more vulnerable to government interference. The developing concept of online or hybrid assemblies – here regrouped under the definition of digitally-mediated assemblies – is now acknowledged by international and regional human rights standards. The importance of social media in organizing gatherings in Serbia was highlighted in the 2022 Freedom House report, which also noted frequent misinformation campaigns resembling the government’s official narrative. The report noted that the online streaming of environmental protests opposed to the construction of hydroelectric power plants helped the movement amass more than 100,000 followers on social media.

 

Press releases
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Following a gathering in Gračanica/Graçanicë, a diverse group of civil society organisations from Kosovo and Serbia have adopted the following joint statement calling for new constructive voices – voices that look to the future whilst retaining a keen eye on the past; voices that seek out partnerships and coalitions beyond the red lines that are supposed to define them; and voices that stand up publicly against divisive and derogatory rhetoric.

 

Focus
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On November 7, 2020, the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM launched the first interactive map of the attacksand pressures on human rights defenders in Serbia. For three years, obtained data on increasingly worse position of activists were included in relevant documents of international institutions such as the resolutions of the European Parliament, progress report of the European Commission for Serbia, the Joint Declaration of the Joint Consultative Committee of Civil Society between the EU and Serbia, and others. The third year of data collection has once again confirmed the negative trends regarding the position of human rights activists. Attacks have been more and more often recorded outside of Belgrade, which confirms the assumption that in previous years the public was not aware of a large number of incidents that occurred in the local communities due to the lack of media coverage from the field.

 

New editions
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This study, Freedom of expression in the digital space: Assessment of prosecutorial and judicial practice, was developed with the support of the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) as part of its project ‘Protection of Freedom of Speech on the Internet’. This project aimed at helping to create an environment conducive to pluralism of information and diversity of opinion in Serbia’s cyberspace by researching a variety of forms in which freedom of speech is criminalised, providing free legal aid to users of social media and activists, and delivering training to strengthen the resilience of civil society organisations against constraints to freedom of expression online.