Violence, in everyday life and in communication, especially in the public discourse of the politicians, is widespread in Serbia. It came as a result of the decade-long war policy, followed by undeveloped democracy, nonexistence of the rule of law, lack of the value system and deeply criminalized society.
Thus far, YUCOM initiated and formed the Coalition for Tolerance against Hate Crime, whose goal was to mobilize all stakeholders to get actively involved in prevention and elimination of such behavior and to push government to adopt and set adequate legal framework and mechanisms for prevention and fight against hate crime and hate speech.
Coalition, whose core members are Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, Youth Initiative for Human Rights, Women in Black, Lawyers for Democracy, Center for Cultural Decontamination and YUCOM became recognizable in the society, and according to the media reactions, they succeeded in imposing discussion on standards related to hate speech and hate crime. Project will continue to support and strengthen the NGO Coalition for Tolerance against Hate Crime in Serbia, formed in 2007 and Coalition will further continue with the activities along with the expert team that YUCOM will establish (Hate Crime Prevention Team).
The main idea of the project is gathering, analysis and distribution of data on hate speech or occurrence, that, by the opinion of the team, represent hate crime (not yet defined in Serbian legislation). It will be carried out through creation of expert team (Hate Crime Prevention Team) that will, in cooperation with NGOs, as members of the Coalition work on these issues. All the material collected, with analysis and recommendations will be published as a monthly bulletin Hate Crime Alert and will be available as a part of YUCOM’s Data Base on hate speech and hate crime incidence.
Also see:
Hate Speech in Serbia No. 4: Hate Speech and Proclamation of the Srebrenica Memorial Day by the European Parliament
Hate Speech in Serbia No 3: Hate Speech and Acts of Hatred in the Media and Protests by the 1389 Movement Against the Arrest of Hague Indictee Radovan Karadžić
Hate Speech in Serbia No 2: Hate Speech in Serbia in Reaction to the Recognition of Kosovo’s Independence by Montenegro and Macedonia
Hate Speech in Serbia No 1: Attacks against Sonja Biserko as a classic example of hate speech against female human rights defenders
Through coordinated activities of expert team and Coalition members in gathering, analyzing and distributing data, project will initiate further actions, support advocacy on adequate legal provisions, raise awareness on hate speech and hate crime with the aim to start process of serious and organized response of all the relevant stakeholders in society against hate crime and hate speech.
It will monitor and point out statements of the politicians, performance and reaction of the government , parliament discussions, activities of the right wing organizations, media, dynamics and behavior within society and culture related to hate crime and hate speech.
Some of the proposed actions to be taken are as follows:
1. Proposing measures to the government
2. Informing domestic and international public on hate crime and hate speech in Serbia
3. Organizing expert debates and round tables and through wide distribution of Hate Crime Alert in Serbia (regionally and internationally)
4. Opening debates and advocating for introduction of hate crime into Serbian legislation
5. Raising awareness of newly formed government, newly formed parliament and local self-government, citizens, youth and media on the subject of the danger and harm for the society that can be caused by inadequate addressing of hate crime and hate speech
6. Creating special strategy/ program in order to target and raise awareness of youth on these
Overall objective:
• To make hate crime and hate speech recognized by public, government and media as dangerous, harmful and socially unacceptable behavior and to establish institutional mechanisms for prevention and combat against hate crime and hate.
