Corrective or an Enemy? Serbian Civil Society Under Threat

Critical activists and intellectuals in the public sphere are facing increasing pressure, the arts and culture festival Mirëdita, Dobar Dan! has been banned in late June, accompanied by an extreme nationalist hate campaign in most of the media.

By banning this year's Mirëdita, Dobar Dan! festival (“Hello” in Albanian and Serbian language), the Serbian government has closed one of the few remaining spaces for normal exchange between Kosovo and Serbia in the fields of art, culture and civil society. Moreover, it is siding with hooligans and ethnonationalists, continuously preventing a debate on reconciliation and dealing with the past. 

The hysterical campaign against the festival was consciously fuelled by the government, with the new Prime Minister Miloš Vučević declaring that “the best way to react to the organizers is with contempt.” This was followed by an outburst of hate speech in the state-controlled media and attacks against the organizers - Integra (Pristina) and Youth Initiative for Human Rights Serbia (Belgrade), the latter’s executive director Sofija Todorović being the most visible representative, also most exposed to threats.

Serbia is making headlines these days with the massive protests by environmentalists and citizens against the planned lithium mining. However, the political situation has remained tense for some time, even after following the repeated local elections in June 2024. Serbia has been experiencing a dramatic decline in democratic freedoms during the reign of the Serbian Progressive Party under Aleksandar Vučić since 2012, now reaching an all-time low. Between two rounds of elections over the last six months, the majority of the opposition were declared enemies of the state. Similar attacks were directed against the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, discrediting our work on the ground to strengthen democratic forces and the rule of law, and presenting it as a government-toppling agenda.

On  September 1, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights Serbia will receive the Aachen Peace Prize for its commitment to peace and human rights in the Western Balkans. We are pleased to welcome two of its representatives – Sofija Todorović and Mila Pajić  – on this occasion in hbs Berlin, to discuss the political situation in Serbia with additional representatives of the Serbian civil society and German politicians, engaged for the region. 

Which types of attacks are civil society activists facing? What are their strategies for dealing with the increasing pressure on human rights defenders and opposition activists in Serbia? Where do German politicians dealing with the region see their scope for action? 

With 

• Sofija Todorović, Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR), Serbia
• Vladimir Arsenijević, author, co-founder KROKODIL, Belgrade
• Boris Mijatović, Member of parliament, Alliance 90 / The Greens 

Moderation: 

• Milan Bogdanović, Program Coordinator, Heinrich Böll Stiftung Belgrad
• Nataša Govedarica, Country Director Serbia, forumZFD

This event is being held in cooperation with forumZFD in English language.

Contact: 
Katja Giebel
Senior program officer
Division East and South East Europe
Heinrich Boell Stiftung Berlin
E giebel@boell.de

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