“Local self-governments should explicitly include LGBTI persons in their action plans, prescribe measures to improve their position and allocate appropriate budget funds for those activities”, said Deputy Protector of Citizens of Serbia for Gender Equality Jelena Stojanovic at the outset of the training on inclusion of LGBTI persons in local action plans, held in Razanj on 28 October.

This first out of five planned trainings for representatives of 15 local self-government units on measures to improve the position of LGBTI people in local communities was organised within the action “Promotion of diversity and equality in Serbia”. Through this action, the European Union and the Council of Europe work hand in hand with the Ombudsperson institution in Serbia in strengthening the capacities of local authorities for mainstreaming rights of LGBTI persons in local policy documents and by-laws. Within the same action, the implementing partner Association DUGA from Sabac has conducted an assessment of Local Action Plans in 64 units of the local self-government and 3 urban municipalities.

Stojanovic highlighted that the Protector of Citizens’ surveys and practice indicated that LGBTI people, i.e. people of different sexual orientation and gender identity, often face discrimination and other forms of human rights violations.

“They often face hate speech and hate crimes due to the prejudices and stereotypes that exist in our society”, she said and added that this is the reason for taking measures to protect and improve the position of LGBT people in their local communities is vital.

Stojanovic also underlined that the Ombudsperson institution issued a recommendation on the inclusion of the LGBTI community in local action plans in the regular annual reports for 2018 and 2019, and that the started trainings are the first step in the implementation of that recommendation, in order to enable LGBTI people to exercise the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the Law in their local community. This recommendation is fully in line with ECRI 2017 monitoring report on Serbia.

Within the action “Promotion of diversity and equality in Serbia”, it has been agreed that five one-day trainings will be held for 75 representatives of local self-government units, who are in charge of development of the local strategic documents in the field of gender equality improvement, position of the youth and social protection. The hosts of the trainings are Razanj, Valjevo, Pancevo, Novi Sad and Kragujevac, and representatives of local self-government bodies from Krusevac, Boljevac, Mionica, Uzice, Zrenjanin, Pozarevac, Sombor, Senta, Babusnica and Vlasotince will also take part in the trainings.

The action “Promotion of diversity and equality in Serbia” is a part of the joint European Union and Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”, implemented by the Council of Europe.