In the opening address, Chairman of the Committee on Human and Minority Rights Meho Omerovic said that the public policies prepared by NGOs offer guidelines for the representatives of state and other institutions dealing with the protection of LGBT people. The public policies give a general cross-section of the situation in different areas where the rights of LGBT people are violated, said Omerovic. They also give a breakdown of the international standards and obligations the Republic of Serbia took on by signing international treaties and conventions, said Meho Omerovic, underlining that the recommendations contained therein improve the overall situation in the sphere.

At its constituting session in the Government of the Republic of Serbia, the Council for monitoring of recommendations of the UN mechanism for human rights standards will be discussing the recommendations of the UN Human Rights Council from the second cycle of the universal periodic review and recommendations of the UN treaty bodies, said Omerovic. The majority of the recommendations relate to LGBT people in Serbia. He pointed out the excellent cooperation between the civil and non-governmental sector with the state institutions as regards the improvement of the status of the LGBT population.

Mladen Antonijevic, representative of the Forum for Ethnic Relations, presented project LGBT Path to the Institutions – Bridging the Gap, stressing that the project aims to establish sustainable and lasting cooperation between LGBT organisations and institutions relevant for the protection of human rights, in order to improve the quality of life of LGBT people.

Labris representative Dragana Todorovic listed the priorities of the public policy proposal: access to justice and rule of law, safety, prevention of violence and combating violence, as well as prevention of discrimination.

The proposed public policies were presented by Jovana Stopic of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, Danilo Curcic of the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, Tijana Vojinovic of the Centre for Euro-Atlantic Studies and Jelena Vidovic of Gayten LGBT.

The ensuing discussion centered on the flaws of the legal framework and problems in the implementation of international standards for the protection of LGBT rights. Safety, security and violence toward LGBT people remain the biggest problems, as well as the fact that same-sex unions are not recognized. Transgender people have problems in exercising the most basic human rights, especially when attempting to be issued documents with a new name and gender change.

The participants were also addressed by representatives of the Office for Human and Minority Rights and the Commissioner for Protection of Equality.