Articles about Serbia

Rigid gender norms or stereotypes limit people’s ability to pursue their professional careers and make choices about their lives. Gender norms not only limit people’s freedom and choices, but they end up condoning gender-based violence and perpetuating inequalities rooted in unbalanced power dynamics. As a result, people are coerced by collective expectations into taking up gender roles that stop them from pursuing the careers and relationships they want, or even being themselves. For example, young men are often expected to suppress their emotions so that they can conform to damaging understandings of strength and masculinity. This leaves men illequipped to express or navigate through their emotions, which can later on cause issues for their mental health. Equally, young women are often expected to be polite and accommodating to others - even in situations where they are made to feel uncomfortable. Conforming to this expectation can make it more difficult for women to assert themselves and can lead to their enduring discrimination or abuse without possessing the skills or confidence to address it. But relationship and sexuality education can play a crucial role in dismantling and challenging harmful gender norms, thus preventing gender-based violence and giving young people the skills needed to lead more equal and safe lives. Furthermore, training of adults and educators is key to raising their awareness around existing gender stereotypes that they may inadvertently perpetuate. Civil society organisations in Serbia, Estonia, Romania and Latvia came together under the Youth SpectActors project to do just that. The main purpose of the project was to educate and empower young people between 12-25 years of age to question gender norms, attitudes and stereotypes that contribute or could lead to gender-based-violence (GBV) through organising theatrical plays that deal with typical situations where gender identity and expression occur. Read about the results of our project on people's lives in the below factsheet.

On August 28, Serbian President announced that the EuroPride march in Belgrade planned for September 17 would not go ahead. Two days ago, the Serbian police instead announced a ban on the route for the parade, which had already been agreed between the organisers of Pride and the Serbian authorities. IPPF EN and IPPF Member Associations from Serbia (Center for population policies and sustainable development -CPPSD), Norway (Sex og Politikk) Romania (SECS – Contraception and Sexual Education Society) and North Macedonia (HERA - Health Education and Research Association) stand with Serbian LGBT and human rights activists in condemning the banning of the LGBT march event as a huge blow for human rights. The parade, due to take place this weekend, was cancelled amid fears that counter protests could turn violent. The atmosphere of fear, threats of violence and numerous serious acts of discrimination which are illegal and punishable - have reached a peak and achieved their goal. A ban on fundamental rights such as freedom of assembly and freedom of speech in the public space is a threat for all of us as citizens and for our capacity to operate as civil society organisations serving groups marginalized by systemic oppression. Banning the LGBT march at a time when ultra-nationalist and far-right groups are tolerated to express hatred and contempt against this minority in the streets of Belgrade will intensify hate crimes and hate speech and fuel violence. Not only are the national authorities clearly failing to respect their obligations under human rights law to ensure freedom of assembly for all citizens, but they also fuel anti-LGBTI rhetoric which puts LGBTI people and community at increased risk of violence. This is a very sad day for Serbia, and not one, but one hundred steps back for human rights in this country. It is more important than ever in these difficult times to stand in solidarity with the LGBT community in Serbia and not allow artificially designed gaps between the majority and this minority to deepen. We will be present at the Pride March in Belgrade on Saturday and call on the Serbian authorities to respect their national and international obligations in ensuring the security of the participants during and at the end of this march for human rights.   Press contact: Antonio Mihajlov from Sex og Politikk, [email protected], +4740633704 or [email protected]. Photo by Mercedes Mehling on Unsplash.

In the Balkans, IPPF members are working hand-in-hand with diverse networks of actors from within and around Roma communities. This work was shaped as the My Body, My Rights project. Our common goal is to strengthen girls’ lifelong reproductive freedom and tackle some of the deep-rooted, systemic obstacles that prevent people - especially women and youth - from living safer and healthier lives. How? By increasing access to care, creating supporting contexts for choice and advocating for investment. Our work is community-driven and based on fostering local partnerships. At the heart of this collective action are Roma volunteers, girls and boys, health mediators and local NGOs, leading grassroots change and advocating for their own unique communities. Doctors, community nurses and teachers are working with them to help deliver lasting impact. And some decision-makers are stepping up and beginning to make much-needed investments in more equitable access to reproductive healthcare. We are proud to share highlights of our work, recommendations to decision-makers and resources for further reading. Explore our new microsite!   

The Youth SpectActors project, implemented in Serbia, Romania, Latvia and Estonia, addresses the root causes of gender-based violence (GBV), namely traditional patriarchal systems based on harmful and rigid gender norms around masculinity and femininity, gender-based discrimination and unequal power relations. Young people are at the centre of our intervention, because of the far-reaching impact of GBV in their lives – as survivors, perpetrators, or bystanders. We believe that young people have a key role they play as change agents. To this end we run theatre-based workshops where boys and girls who participate literally walk in one another's shoes to help challenge and dismantle 'gender roles'. Gender roles are merely roles that we are playing all our lives, and this is why playing them on the stage makes perfect sense. By dismantling archaic stereotypes, we can foster equality and prevent violence and coercion within relationships. Relationship and sexuality education, in school settings and outside, plays a key role in ensuring the safe emotional and physical development of young people.

This is the Safe from sexual and gender-based violence (SfSGBV) toolkit. Its main purpose is to guide the delivery of sexuality education sessions that support young people at risk of marginalization to recognize and protect themselves from SGBV. The toolkit is designed for the use of experienced sexuality education educators. Equally, it is a valuable resource for young people interested to learn more about prevention of sexual and gender-based violence.   You can learn from the toolkit either through our interactive website or by downloading the resource below.

“I got married quite early, when I was 17. A year and a half later I got pregnant and had a baby girl. Now she is 18 months old. My husband started a job in the city in a company which is popular among Roma people, and I stayed home to look after our child.  Last year I met Valya, the health mediator. She told me they organize meetings, and she invited me to take part in a women’s group. Initially I didn’t know what we would do, but it was interesting as there were other women like me. During these meetings we spoke very often about contraception in general, and especially about IUDs. The women shared what they had heard and what they knew about them. It was strange, but most of them said that IUDs harm women’s health. I also understood that the men are worried about their wives’ health and that that’s why they don’t approve of contraception. I heard women say other things as well, like you can still get pregnant with an IUD, that you may gain weight, that IUDs move in the body, and so on and so forth.  One day, during a meeting, we spoke again about contraception, and more precisely, what we thought was a good family size. People had different views. I personally think that it is not so much about the number of children as it is about being able to make sure you have everything you need - clothes, food, the possibility to educate them. Everyone should take these issues into consideration before having children.  I thought more often about myself and my family. We didn’t have high incomes and we could barely afford our bills. Our daughter was a baby and it was challenge to provide for her. My husband and I started to talk about it, and I started to think about getting an IUD. That’s why six months ago I decided to have one fitted, and I feel fine. It isn’t painful and I haven’t gained weight. My friends think I’m crazy, because I only have one child. But I know that I’ll be able to decide when to have another one.” When vulnerable communities, volunteers and professionals unite for reproductive freedom, they are a powerful force for change. Watch Vaska’s story and others in our short film about the amazing work our members in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia are doing to support the lifelong reproductive health and safety of Roma girls, women and young people.

When vulnerable communities, volunteers and professionals unite for reproductive freedom, they are a powerful force for change. Our short film features five stories that show how IPPF members in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia are supporting the lifelong reproductive health and safety of Roma girls, women and young people, working on the multiple fronts necessary to improve access and uptake of quality family planning and maternal health care. Learn more about the My Body, My Rights project here. 

Our 2019-2021 project addresses sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) as a barrier to the social inclusion of young people. We know well that the groups who are already the most marginalized in Europe are also those who are most at risk of SGBV. YSAFE, IPPF EN’s regional youth network, formed a coalition to take action, joining forces in Portugal, Serbia and Romania with three community-focused organizations engaged in supporting young LGBTQ* people, young Roma people, and young women and others at risk of gender-based discrimination. Together, we have produced a comprehensive toolkit including 38 full new workshop plans and thorough advice on combining them into an appropriate series to respond to a target group's needs. It covers all major current SGBV issues, including SGBV topics that are often left behind in classical sexuality education. There is extensive guidance on how to deliver the toolkit workshops digitally as well as in person, and new monitoring and evaluation tools to measure the effectiveness of the toolkit activities when they are used online. We analysed the effect of our piloting on over 320 young people and have proven that our tool delivers real impact in shifting attitudes and increasing competencies around recognizing and preventing SGBV. Young educators in the three countries have had their capacities raised to deliver workshops using the toolkit, and our dissemination activities have resulted in many more organizations in the EU and beyond incorporating the new toolkit into their existing programme of educational activities. You can learn more about the process and its results directly from some of the young people involved, who collaborated on a mini-series of episodes of YSAFE’s podcast.

YSAFE, IPPF EN’s youth network, created the project “Sharing Innovations” as a response to the Covid-19 lockdowns and the impact they had on the delivery of relationship and sexuality education (RSE). It is an Erasmus+ project aiming to improve access to sexuality education online. We are collaborating with seven national sexual and reproductive health and rights organizations (IPPF EN members in Portugal, Cyprus, Estonia, Spain, North Macedonia, Latvia, Serbia) and the End FGM EU network to create a new set of guidelines on delivering safe and effective digital sexuality education. It will incorporate everything that we have learned during the first year of the pandemic about pivoting quickly to online RSE delivery into a user-friendly tool. Young sexuality educators will be testing the tool out in 6-month programmes of activities they will design themselves, focused on different national priorities around sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) prevention. We expect the results to be published in the summer of 2022.

The Youth SpectActors project, implemented in Serbia, Romania, Latvia and Estonia, addresses the root causes of gender-based violence (GBV), namely traditional patriarchal systems based on harmful and rigid gender norms around masculinity and femininity, gender-based discrimination and unequal power relations. Young people are at the centre of our intervention, because of the far-reaching impact of GBV in their lives – as survivors, perpetrators, or bystanders. We believe that young people have a key role they play as change agents. To this end we run theatre-based workshops where boys and girls who participate literally walk in one another's shoes to help challenge and dismantle 'gender roles'. Gender roles are merely roles that we are playing all our lives, and this is why playing them on the stage makes perfect sense. By dismantling archaic stereotypes, we can foster equality and prevent violence and coercion within relationships. Relationship and sexuality education, in school settings and outside, plays a key role in ensuring the safe emotional and physical development of young people.     This project was funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (REC 2014-2020).