Human Rights Defenders Arrested at Protest Against Srebrenica Declaration

Nine people from our partner organisation, Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) in Serbia, were arrested by the police for having sprayed “That tough foreign word genocide” in front of the Serbian Parliament. The activists were protesting against the content of the Srebrenica Declaration which does not acknowledge the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 as genocide.

The police apprehended the protesters without informing them of what they were suspected of. They were detained for several hours, although there was no reason to take them into custody.

We and the Coalition Against Discrimination, which we are a member of, condemn the arrest, which had no legal ground. In a joint statement, we demand the state to investigate the circumstances around the arrest and inform the public.

Read the statement here: Condemnation of arrest of human rights defenders.