the Protector of Citizens, the provision which contains explicit prohibition of discrimination
on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or the explicit prohibition of the content
which incites establishment of prejudice and stereotypes were not included in the Law on
Textbooks.
Despite recommendations of the Protector of Citizens, the Action Plan for the period 20182019 for the implementation of the Development Strategy of the Ministry of Interior for the
period 2018-202178 there are still no prescribed concrete specific measures dedicated the
improvement of the position of LGBTI persons and other sensitive social groups, even though
LGBTI persons are frequently exposed to threats, violence, hate speech and hate crimes.
Furthermore, amendments to the Law on Police do not prohibit discrimination also on the
basis of sexual orientation.
Although the Protector of Citizens issued recommendations several times, the Law on Free
Legal Assistance79 did not introduce as categories of users in sensitive position LGBTI persons
who face grave violation of rights in various spheres of life.
Respecting the attitudes of the Protector of Citizens that the Rulebook on More Detailed
Conditions, Criteria and Manner of Selection, Testing and Evaluation of Donors of
Reproductive Cells and Embryos80 contains provisions which are not in compliance with
adopted standards of the exercise of human rights and non-discrimination when it comes to
LGBTI persons, the Administration for Biomedicine expressed the readiness to amend this
bylaw and submitted to the Protector of Citizens the proposal of the new text of disputable
provisions. At the moment of writing of this report, the bylaw still has not been amended.
When it comes to the protection of rights of intersex persons, the Law on the Prohibition of
Discrimination and other relevant laws do not contain the provision which explicitly prohibits
discrimination of intersex persons and discrimination on the basis of sexual characteristics,
even though the Republic of Serbia in the Third Cycle of the Universal Periodical Review of
the United Nations on 24th January, 2018 received the recommendation to include in
regulations the protection of LGBTI persons against discrimination on the basis of intersexual
status.
The World Health Organization in 2019 conducted the revision of the International Disease
Classification (IDC 11) in which the transgender identity was removed from the list of mental
diseases, and the very notion of transgender was replaced by the notion of gender
incongruence, which continues the world trend of de-pathologizing of trans identity. Member
states will since 2022 report to the United Nations on the implementation of IDC 11 and until
then the states have the period for the implementation of the program of de-pathologizing of
trans-identity. Crucial items of this program for adequate national implementation are
training of health care employees; adjustment of national systems of health insurance so as to
involve the necessary care of trans-gender persons; provision of availability of services and
introduction of standards of human rights into the Guidelines for actions which should be
executed by the Ministry of Health.
There is a great problem of keeping of the hormonal status of trans persons, women who
underwent hysterectomy and women in menopause. There is no hormone estradiol in
ampules, without which trans women who do not have glands to produce estradiol could live,
at the market in the Republic of Serbia. Therefore, the Protector of Citizens, acting upon his
own initiative, took measures towards the Ministry of Health and RHIF.
Available at: https://www.srbija.gov.rs/dokument/45678/strategije.php.
“Official Gazette of RS“, no. 87/18.
80 “Official Gazette of RS“, no. 27/2019.
78
79
- 49 -
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents