On 24 and 25 September in Sarajevo was held
the second regional conference LGBT
rights in Western Balkan: Is a new approach possible? that brought together
a multitude of activists, but also other participants : journalists, members of
different human rights organizations, institution’s representatives,
researchers, etc. They have been discussing over two days in several of the
panels about the state of human rights of LGBT people, not only in BiH, but
also in the countries of the region. The conference was opened by Thomas Busch,
Head of the Political Section, EU Delegation to BiH and EU Special
Representative. “The European Union considers homophobia and intolerance
towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons
incompatible with its standards, and has established rules and actions to
prevent and stop this. The EU Delegation to BiH is supporting projects from the
European Instrument for Democracy & Human Rights (EIDHR) that aim not just
to raise awareness and advocate in BiH society about equality and human rights
issues of LGBTI persons, but also to provide legal measures to fight human
rights violations against LGBTI persons.
This shows that EU is serious about fighting discrimination on grounds of
sexual orientation and gender identity and therefore supports all efforts to achieve this goal.”
The conference was organized by the
Heinrich Böll Foundation, with partner organizations Sarajevo Open Centre and
CURE Foundation within the project Coming
out! Advocating promotion and protection of the LGBT rights, financed by
the European Union.
On the first day, within the introductory
session Two steps forward, one back –
the LGBT rights in Europe, in
addition to Hana Ćopić, researcher and activist who spoke about the situation
in Serbia, Terry Reintke, Member of the European Parliament and member of the
Committee on Women’s Rights and gender equality, scored on five fields of
action: 1. equal rights in the private and public spheres; 2 fight against
everyday homophobia; 3 trans * rights, as all should be able to choose their
identity; 4. support of civil society, the creation of public debate, because
LGBT issues have to be in the public space; and finally, 5 education, because
LGBT issues must become mainstream in schools and universities, for the sake of
creating a new approach to education. Reintke thinks that a new approach is
possible, but that all must unite in order to be established, and pointed out
that within the parliament and other political institutions alliance can exist,
but if there are no people from the LGBT community who will stand behind it, if
there is no pressure coming from the street and not pressuring, change is difficult.
“I can say that I’m going to fight, but it’s different when I say to a right-wing
parties that I support LGBT people and in front of building on the street are
LGBT people standing.”
Zlatiborka Popov-Momcinovic (The Faculty of
Philosophy, University of East Sarajevo)
spoke about the sectoral research that was conducted within the project Coming Out !, and specifically referred
to the political parties and education. Zlatiborka pointed out that only Naša stranka in its program has included
part concerning LGBT population, with the SDP that does not explicitly have a
written part on it, but was involved in some activity when it comes to LGBT
rights. “Openly homophobic attitudes refered to religious teachings, the
‘natural and unnatural’, the bad economic situation … Often the
responsibility is being shifted, even on LGBT people. It is a current
phenomenon when it comes to politicians and LGBT people. “Zlatiborka
believes that Croatia went three steps forward, although there is a step
backwards when it comes to pressure from the church.
The next day there were three panels: The state’s responsibility to protect LGBT
people: hate crime / hate speech, Promoting Tolerance: education and Bringing about change: the media. On
panel media were speaking about the media reports related to the LGBT
population Predrag Azdejković, editor in chief of gay magazine Optimist from Belgrade, Ana Brakus,
koodinatorica in association Zagreb Pride and journalist Libela.org and Jasmina
Causevic, a researcher at the Sarajevo Open center, with moderation by Kristine
Ljevak, journalist from FTV.
Predrag Azdejković says that the media
every year, when it comes to Pride parade, follow the same scenario. “The
organizers are announcing that there will be a Pride, then Dveri a klerofascist political party which
fortunately did not come through the census in elections, say they are against
it, then police union come out saying that they do not have no salaries,
uniforms and equipment, and that they will have to be struck defenseless with football
fans. After that politicians are coming, there is usually Palma, the mayor of
Jagodina, which says something homophobic, and it all ends with the head of the
Serbian Orthodox Church, who compared us this year too with pedophiles, and who
said that homosexuals need to organize the Pride on their own budget and not at
the expense of the suffering of Serbia, as he was director of the State
Treasury. “However, Predrag pointed out that certain media were critical
of the patriarch this year, putting in front of his statements word”
hypocritical “. Predrag says, the moment they become part of competition
in which one fights for every reader, the media realized that people should
give what people love. “And people like homophobia, polling, human rights
violations,” said Predrag and highlights the problem of lack of moderation
of comments in media, and the lack of programs about LGBT issues in the
electronic media.
Ana Brakus said that the referendum in
Croatia showed that Croatia is homophobic. “We are homophobic society and
our homophobia is inscribed in our Constitution.” She pointed out one
bright example of journalism at the time of the referendum, when the cover of
the Novi list was completely painted
in rainbow colors, plus a thematic issue devoted to a referendum. In her
opinion, the dominant media were trying to be objective, while the portals were
“classified” by websites. “The day before the referendum on HRTV
was scheduled to air emissions Every day
a good day where the guest were supposed to be parents of LGBT people. The
show was canceled because it would, in case it was released that day,
influenced how people will vote. As if the fact that while not having it
screening that day would also impact on
how people will vote. “Ana pointed out that at this point any reporting on
LGBT people in the region represents a particular type of training, since it
shows that these people are all around us .
Jasmina Causevic, who moved to Sarajevo
from Belgrade in 2006, remembers that in that year she opened the Dani magazine in a bookstore and the
first text that she read was an informal wedding of Azra and Vesna, whose
author was Belma Becirbasic. “For me it was amazing, and somehow it
remained in my memory, as if in Sarajevo, there is some hope and magic. In the
region there is a scene and one talks about it, and here it is clearly a
twilight zone from which nothing else than national stories again undermining
any civil action and anti-capitalism can come. “Jasmina thinks that those
media that have serious and argumentative writing about the real problems that
LGBT people face have a low profile, citing as an example of the daily Avaz where one can find different
titles, even those with affirmative nature, which only indicates that it is a
patchy publication, without the system, while, on the other hand, there is an
example of magazine Dani that consistently
and in a serious way deals with the issues of life of LGBT people.
Panelist on the panel The state’s responsibility to protect LGBT people: hate crime / hate
speech were Tanja Vlasic Office for Human Rights and the Rights of National
Minorities, Zagreb, Antonio Mihailov from subversive Front Skopje and Mary Ann
Hennessey Head of the Council of Europe Office in BiH. The panel was moderated
by Emin Bosniak from Sarajevo Open Centre. Tanja Vlasic pointed out that the Institution
in Croatia realized the importance of the fight against discrimination and hate
crimes against LGBT people through the work as well as what is the current
situation. Antonio Mihailov from an activist perspective talked about incidents
of violence that took place in Macedonia. It was also shown a video of attacks
on the LGBT center in Skopje. Mary Ann Hannessey spoke about the campaign
launched by the Council of Europe in Bosnia that was about hate speech.
The panel Promoting Tolerance: education, spoke Amir Hodzic, an independent
researcher from Zagreb, Xheni Karaj from Aleanca LGBT Tirana, Mina Damjanovic
from the organization for lesbian human rights Labris from Belgrade and Nenad
Velickovic from magazines Školegijum from Sarajevo. Moderator of the panel was
Sasa Madacki from the Centre for Human Rights, University of Sarajevo. They
spoke about discrimination against LGBT people in textbooks, and the general
problem of the relevance of the information contained therein. It has been made
an overview of the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia and
Albania when it comes to the sector education.
The concluding words of the conference were
given by Sasa Gavric, executive director of the Sarajevo Open Centre. He said
that it was time for political parties to recognize and incorporate LGBT rights
in their programs, and that both parties, and the non-governmental sector, and
civil society must work together to improve the rights of LGBT people. “In
Bosnia and Herzegovina we can say that we have laws in which they recognize
sexual orientation and gender identity, but inadequately. We need concrete measures
for the implementation of these laws, “said Gavric, adding that the major
challenge is continuing the empowerment of the LGBT community. When it comes to
education, it is clear that this is something that cannot have quick changes,
said Gavric.
“This conference marked the first joint meeting of
representatives from parliament, the government, representatives of political
parties, civil society and academic community. The spectrum of participants was
very broad and I am grateful to everyone. I hope we can together increase the
speed at which we are working to improve the rights of LGBT people and that we
will, in accordance with the title of the conference, go three steps forward
and one back, “said Gavric in the end.
The conference was held under the sponsorship
of the Institution of Ombudsman / Ombudsman for Human Rights in Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
