BackLocal governments should explicitly include LGBTI people in their action plans, prescribe measures to improve their position and allocate appropriate budget funds for those activities, Deputy Protector of Citizens for Gender Equality Ms. Jelena Stojanović said.
At the outset of the first out of five planned trainings on the inclusion of LGBTI people in local action plans, held in Ražanj on Wednesday 28 October 2020, Ms. Stojanović accentuated that the Protector of Citizens’ surveys and practice indicated that LGBTI people, i.e. people with different sexual orientation and different sexual orientation and gender identity, often faced discrimination and other forms of human rights violations.
Ms. Stojanović said that they often faced hate speech and hate crimes because of the prejudices and stereotypes that existed in our society and that was why taking measures to protect and improve the position of LGBT people in their local community was vital. Ms. Stojanović reminded that the Ombudsman 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 represenedt 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.
Five trainings on the inclusion of LGBTI people in local action plans are jointly implemented by the Protector of Citizens and the Association Duga from Šabac, within the Council of Europe project "Promotion of Diversity and Equality", with the support of the European Union.
According to the plan, from 28 October to 11 November 2020, five one-day trainings will be held for representatives of a total of 15 local self-government units on measures to improve the position of LGBTI people in local communities.
The hosts of the trainings are Ražanj, Valjevo, Pančevo, Novi Sad and Kragujevac, and representatives of local self-government bodies from Kruševac, Boljevac, Mionica, Užice, Zrenjanin, Požarevac, Sombor, Senta, Babušnica and Vlasotince will also take part in the trainings.
Source: Protector of Citizens, Ombudsman of Serbia
