Since the beginning of the student protests in Serbia, we have publicly and unequivocally supported all their demands. The loss of innocent lives in the collapse of the train station canopy in Novi Sad on November 1st last year deeply shook us, as did the violence we are witnessing and the actions of institutions that, instead of fulfilling their duties, are using various maneuvers to suppress the student movement. The students have demonstrated that the movement cannot be suppressed and that the struggle will continue until institutions begin fulfilling their mandates. The rule of law and accountability of public officials must be the foundation of a functioning society. However, Serbia has long ceased to be a country governed by the rule of law.<\/p>\n\n
For years, we have witnessed pressure, attacks, and intimidation campaigns against civil society organizations, human rights defenders, activists, journalists, and citizens who dare to stand up against corruption and abuse of institutions. We see the misuse of state security structures and other institutions for illegal surveillance of activists and the fabrication of criminal and other legal proceedings aimed at intimidating activists and journalists. The pressure on civil society has now taken on an institutional form for the first time through the proposed law on a special register of foreign influence agents, modeled after regulations in Russia and Belarus. In response to all this, the responsible institutions remain silent and fail to perform their fundamental duty \u2013 they do not protect citizens or the common good.<\/p>\n\n
In recent days, we have witnessed harassment, arrests, deportations, and entry bans imposed on activists, students, and public figures from abroad. We are also seeing the targeting of citizens with dual citizenship, while convicted war criminals publicly share students\u2019 personal data, thereby endangering their safety.<\/p>\n\n
We are also witnessing authorities attempting to uphold a false facade of democracy and inclusivity in policy-making by formally involving civil society in decision-making processes. However, regardless of how well these initiatives may appear, they are not implemented in practice, and the standards for protecting human rights and freedoms have been in steady decline in recent years. Citizens and civil society have no real opportunity to influence decisions regarding projects and activities that already have or could have a negative impact on their rights, property, health, and safety. Public spaces and services, cultural heritage, and natural resources are being systematically taken from citizens, with the active complicity of public institutions, public servants, and the country\u2019s highest-ranking officials. <\/p>\n\n
Due to all the aforementioned reasons, and guided by the conviction that the rule of law<\/strong>\r\nmust finally prevail, we have decided to suspend our cooperation with the legislative and executive authorities in Serbia. By cooperation, we refer to any form of membership \u2013 formal or informal \u2013 in working groups within government ministries, as well as in all other permanent and ad hoc working groups, councils, and similar instruments of state bodies that require our direct involvement.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n We will not abandon the effort to restore institutions of the Republic of Serbia to their rightful functions and to the citizens. We remain committed to our work and will continue to monitor all decision-making processes, regularly inform the public about their effects, and, in the coming period, utilize all legal, administrative, and other mechanisms available within state institutions. In doing so, we will protect human rights, report criminal offenses and violations, highlight harmful decisions and actions, and make use of all available mechanisms to safeguard the public interest, human rights, freedoms, health, safety, and property of citizens, in accordance with the goals, vision, and mission of our organizations.<\/p>\n\n Signatories: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n A 11 \u2013 Initiative for Economic and Social Rights\r\nAlternative Girls\u2019 Center\r\nASTRA \u2013 Anti-Trafficking Action\r\nAutonomous Women\u2019s Center\r\nBelgrade Centre for Human Rights\r\nBelgrade Centre for Security Policy\r\nCenter for Contemporary Politics\r\nCivic Initiatives\r\nCRTA \u2013 Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability\r\nEuropean Movement in Serbia\r\nFemPlatz\r\nHelsinki Committee for Human Rights\r\nHumanitarian Law Center\r\nIndependent Journalists\u2019 Association of Serbia\r\nInitiative for the Rights of Persons with Mental Disabilities \u2013 MDRI-S\r\nInternational Aid Network \u2013 IAN\r\nLawyers\u2019 Committee for Human Rights \u2013 YUCOM\r\nMedia Association\r\nMinistry of Space Collective\r\nNational Coalition for Decentralization\r\nOnline Media Association\r\nPartners for Democratic Change Serbia\r\nPIN \u2013 Psychosocial Innovation Network\r\nPolekol \u2013 Organization for Political Ecology\r\nRenewables and Environmental Regulatory Institute \u2013 RERI\r\nSHARE Foundation\r\nSlavko \u0106uruvija Foundation\r\nYouth Initiative for Human Rights<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since the beginning of the student protests in Serbia, we have publicly and unequivocally supported all their demands. The loss\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":13720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1545,1881],"tags":[1883,1882],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13603"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13604,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13603\/revisions\/13604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}