LGBT rights conference held in Belgrade

LGBT rights conference held in Belgrade

Speaking at the opening of the conference yesterday, Christoph Straesser, German government commissioner for human rights policy, expressed the hope that the Pride March scheduled for September 28 in Belgrade would be good news for the media all over Europe.

“The Serbian government is under obligation to enforce respect for the rights of free expression and organization of the parade. It must be made clear to everyone that violence against the participants will not be tolerated. This could be a good signal in the negotiations with the EU,” said Straesser.

“Politicians and governments must constantly be pointing out that we are not talking about gay rights here, but rather about human rights that apply to everyone. States are required to adopt and implement these rights,” the German government official said.

The European Parliament is standing firmly by the position that the rights of sexual minorities are indeed human rights and that they are a litmus test for freedoms situation in society, said Terry Reintke of the Green Group in the European Parliament.

She stressed that full emancipation could be there only if the LGBT community had equal rights when it came to family rights.

Reintke pointed out that homophobia was present in Europe in the labor market, politics and other spheres of society and effort had to be made to curb it.

This includes education reform, she said, noting that Germany had already begun a debate on changing the curricula concerning LGBT rights, the rights of Roma and persons with special needs.

Chairman of the Serbian parliament's Human Rights Committee Meho Omerović stated that the LGBT population in Serbia was facing problems, violence and threats, and society was ruled by stereotypes encouraging discrimination and violence against them.

He stressed that all institutions in Serbia had to ensure implementation of the Constitution and the law and to guarantee respect for human and minority rights, adding that legislation for the protection of LGBT people needed to improve.

“We do not want to look at the LGBT community issue only through the prism of” Gay Pride, because we want to treat this issue as a matter of respect for fundamental human rights, said Omerović.

The conference was organized by Labris, a lesbian human rights organization in Serbia, with the support of a number of German foundations.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić met on Sunday with Straesser who stressed that holding a gathering of LGBT people in Belgrade would be of great importance.

The two officials discussed respect and protection of human rights, especially the rights of persons of different sexual orientation (LGBT).

Straesser, who is also a member of the German Bundestag, stressed the importance of holding a gathering of LGBT persons in Belgrade, something that he also discussed with other officials during his three-day visit to Serbia.

Vučić said that the protection of human rights, especially when it came to the prohibition of discrimination, was guaranteed by the Constitution and the government would do everything to ensure that the rights were protected and respected, the government's media relations office said.