Anti-Discrimination Law

One Step Closer to the European Union

The final version of the article 21, which has caused most controversy, states: "Sexual orientation is a private matter and no one may be asked to publicly declare their sexual orientation. Everyone has the right to freely declare their sexual orientation, and discrimination against such declaration is prohibited". Even the fact that there are no reliable data that show the number of homosexually oriented people in Serbia, with the estimates ranging from 5 to 35 per cent, proves this to be a debatable question


By MILENA STOŠIĆ
from Niš, SERBIA


Just 10 years ago people in Serbia hid in basements and bomb shelters, running away from NATO bombs, isolated from the rest of Europe and the world. Today, Serbia finally fulfills the last legal prerequisite to be put on the white Schengen list, as one of a number of steps towards the European Union - the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination has been passed.

After the presentation of the bill, a number of objections have been made by traditional churches and religious communities. Consequently, on March 4, the bill was withdrawn for final changes. Media frenzy went on for about 20 days, however, the Parliament passed the law on March 26, with 127 (out of 250) members voting "for" it. Even though Serbian citizens think it important for Serbia to be put on the white Schengen list (87% of them), and the alignment of Serbian legislation with that of the European Union is a necessary requirement for its joining the EU, it can by no means be said that everything went smoothly, without any protestations or reexaminations of the question-at what price should we join the EU?

A Long Road to the Law

The bill on the prohibition of discrimination was written by experts from the non-governmental, civil and academic fields, with the support from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), also with the aid from the European Commission's delegation in Belgrade. In December 2007, the Venice Commission of the European Council gave a very favourable opinion on the draft of this law, with the public debates taking place throughout November and December 2008 in a number of Serbian cities. The European Commission's report for 2008 confirmed an existing widespread discrimination.

Traditional churches and religious communities have stressed, making their objections to the bill, that they have not been invited to a public debate. Their announcement states that the controversial bill guarantees the right to one's freedom to publicly express one's sexual orientation, however, it is stated, a thing like that does not exist in any of the international accords on the prohibition of discrimination, in any of the European directives, or in any relevant European or world legislations.

Boris Milićević, the president of GSA (the Gay-Straight Alliance), finds that traditional churches and religious communities have had a chance to participate in open debates but have been evading them - "precisely because they don't accept counter-arguments. Alongside right wing organizations, they are essentially against the concept of equality for all citizens". In the afore-mentioned announcement traditional churches and religious communities have dissociated themselves from any political parties.

After the withdrawal of the bill the GSA has proclaimed appeals from 91 non-governmental organizations demanding that the law be reinstated and passed in its original form. "Everyone, including the European Union, the Council of Europe, the United Nations and the European Commission, have explicitly demanded that Serbia should pass a comprehensive anti-discrimination law at the shortest possible time, especially mentioning the Roma people, ethnic minorities, small religious communities, the disabled and the LGBT population (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people) as groups which must be protected by this law", explains Boris Milićević for Wave magazine.

One of the amendments suggested by traditional churches and religious communities has been to delete the part which says - "everyone has the right to freely declare their sexual orientation". They explain that the sexual orientation in itself is not an affront to moral or religious convictions, but its public declaration is. It is also stated that the freedom to declare one's sexual orientation is not a guarantee of freedom itself. What is interesting is that they do not talk about homosexual or "different" orientation in their announcement, but about sexual orientation in general.

A specialist in clinical psychology, Miroslava Vuković, who works as a counsellor for sexual orientation at the Student Policlinic in Belgrade, explains for Wave magazine that "Church and science have different positions regarding numerous issues not just homosexuality, however, they are particularly dissimilar when it comes to sexuality and people's sexual behaviour". Church's position refers to the prohibition of pre-marital and extra-marital sexual activity, birth control, abortion and so on. According to the Census conducted by the Serbian Institute for Statistics in 2002, as much as 7,123,611 out of 7,498,001 enlisted citizens declared themselves as believers. The question is whether they really abide by sexual abstinence and other positions of the church. On the other hand, 60% of citizens think that Church is right to condemn homosexuality (according to CeSID's polls dating from February and March 2008).

Public or Secret Orientation

Experts - psychologists and psychiatrists differ on the question of the adequacy of the word "orientation" when used in a noun phrase sexual orientation. Undoubtedly, there are those who consider homosexuality a disorder in the sex drive, and as much as 70% of Serbian citizens think it a disease (according to CeSID's polls). A cause for such a position may be in the fact that the announcement, denying the opinion that homosexuality is a disease, has appeared only recently: "In 2008, the Serbian Medical Society, at the initiative from Labris - an organization which deals with human rights for the lesbians, issued an announcement in confirmation of this expert opinion", says Miroslava Vuković. In addition, Boris Milićević reminds that "homosexuality in Serbia is decriminalized (1994) and depathologized (simultaneously as the World Health Organization, 1990)", even before Serbia has begun the process of integration into the EU.

Polls conducted by CeSID also show that people would not want to be related to a homosexual person, would not want to socialize with such a person, would not want such a person to have a managerial position in the state or be their superior at work. As much as 75% of examinees would not want a homosexual person to teach their children. It seems that there hardly is a parent who would not mind if their child declared himself an LGBT person.

When it comes to the number of homosexually oriented people in Serbia today - there are no reliable data, with the estimates ranging from 5 to 35%. "According to some estimates given by NGOs which deal with the rights of non-heterosexual people, there are between 600 and 700 thousand homosexuals in Serbia. According to a very comprehensive research on health behaviour of high school and university students (a sample of 5,385 students of both genders, from every university centre in Serbia), with the participation of our institution as well, in 2000, there were 76,08% of heterosexually oriented, 1,21% of homosexually oriented, 4,03% of bisexually oriented students and 9,17% of them stated they were unsure about their sexual orientation", says Miroslava Vuković.

On the Way towards the White Schengen

The whole story about the anti-discrimination law has occurred pretty fast. The final version, which has been passed in the end, states that the actions by ministers and other religious officials, in line with their convictions and laws, would not be considered discriminatory. The position regarding transsexuals has been deleted and finally, article 21, which has caused most controversy, now states: "Sexual orientation is a private matter and no one may be asked to publicly declare their sexual orientation. Everyone has the right to freely declare their sexual orientation, and discrimination against such declaration is prohibited". Fines envisaged by this law go from 5,000 to 100,000 RSD.

The effects and the amount of satisfaction in people with the law are yet to be seen when this legal decision is put into practice and use. Taking into consideration that, in the end, the law has been passed, thus clearing the way towards the white Schengen; one can assume that Serbia is one step closer to the EU, not only when the legislative body is considered but people's consciousness about who they are, where they are and where they are going as well.


(Published: 10.04.2009.)