On the occasion of the open call for physical violence by the Member of the National Assembly, Aleksandar Martinović, civil society organizations gathered in National Convention on the European Union working groups for Chapters 23 and 24 and cross-sectoral groups for political criteria and freedom of expression and the media demand a reaction from the President of the National Assembly from the position of Chairman of the Committee on Administrative, Budgetary, Mandate and Immunity Issues.

We express our deep concern at the detention of lawyers Ilya Salei and Maksim Znak on September 9, 2020, in Belarus, in a criminal case which is undeniably politically motivated. We consider this to be a gross violation of professional rights and privileges and improper interference with their professional legal activities and with their rights to express professional opinions, as established by international legal standards.

The media and civil society organizations demand from the Ministry of Finance and the Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering to immediately present the grounds for suspicion due to which they ordered the extraordinary collection of information about organizations, media, and individuals from the commercial banks. The article of the law, referred to by the director of the Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering,

We draw the attention of the domestic and international public to the unacceptable recent moves by the state authorities in Serbia during the state of emergency introduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which undermine democracy, rule of law, basic human rights and especially freedom of media. We condemn the arrest of Nova.rs journalist Ana Lalić, to whom the Novi Sad Police Department imposed a measure of detention of up to 48 hours on April 1, 2020 because, as her lawyer stated, she is suspected that she could repeat the crime, publishing articles which are causing panic and chaos.

We would like to announce that, due to the situation with the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic and the intensified measures of the Government of the Republic of Serbia regarding declaring a state of emergency, the Human Rights House with its member organizations unanimously decided that their employees will work from home in the upcoming period.

For more detailed information on the work and activities of each organization in the upcoming period, do not hesitate to contact them via websites or e-mail addresses.

Human Rights House once again warns the public about the dangers of Vojislav Seselj’s political actions and ongoing disturbing rhetoric about the 1990s, which recently resulted in a physical attack against civil society activists. Activists who have protested the convicted war criminal’s promotion of his book denying the Srebrenica genocide must be protected from physical attacks. Their protests are especially important as they are objecting to the illicit use of public resources to promote war criminals.

Civil society organizations are calling on the State Prosecutors’ Council, the Republic Public Prosecutor and the HJC to do their work and stop further falling apart of institutions through the tabloids.

The actions of the Republic Public Prosecutor, based solely on the writing of the tabloid, without any verification, indicate a lack of confidence in the institution and in the members of the institution he is in charge of.