President Aleksander Vucic announced on the 27th August that EuroPride was to be cancelled. This is a major event for the LGBTQ+ community with an enormous march planned for the 17th September.
Vucic has cancelled the event due to concerns of violence towards attendees from right-wing groups. Despite acknowledging that this move was a violation of minority rights, he felt it was the right decision as thousands in Serbia, including the Serbian Orthodox Church, opposed the event and held a demonstration on the 27th, waving banners that read “save our children and our family”.
EuroPride organiser Marks Mihailovic has claimed any attempt to cancel the event would be a “clear breach of the constitution”. The president’s reasoning for cancelling the event echoes sentiments seen in Russia, where it was claimed that the event had to be cancelled so to avoid violent clashes. This argument was held to be a violation of the right to peaceful assembly and was struck down by the European Court of Human Rights in 2010 (Alekseyev v Russia).
Serbia is at risk of potentially breaching articles 11, 13 and 14 of the European Convention of Human Rights if they do go ahead with this ban.
Article 11: Freedom of Assembly and Association
“Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests”
Article 13: Right To An Effective Remedy
“Everyone whose rights and freedoms as set forth in this Convention are violated shall have an effective remedy before a national authority notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by persons acting in an official capacity”
Article 14: Prohibition of Discrimination
“The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status.”
Breach of the constitution or not, cancelling a pride event is not a novel move for Serbia. Similar situations arose in 2010 where violence broke out at a pride march, leading to pride events being cancelled between 2011-2013.
Defiance from the LGBTQ+ community?
Despite the president’s sentiment, EuroPride organisers remain adamant that the event will go forward, claiming the president cannot cancel a private event and they have not yet received formal notice of cancellation of the event – is this Vucic virtue signalling to appease the right wing?
Ana Brnabić, the Prime Minister of Serbia is the first woman and openly gay person to hold the position disappointingly towed the presidents line, claiming ‘peace’ is the priority.
Regardless, EuroPride have stated neither the hosts nor the licence holders will be cancelling the event. This will be an interesting story to follow. Visit the EuroPride 2022 website for more information about the events taking place (hopefully!) and any updates
Legal Lens 