Zovem se Jelena Dubovi. Moja partnerka, Sunčica Kopunović i ja smo u emotivnoj vezi već četiri godine, i živimo u Srbiji koja pravno ne prepoznaje istopolne parove. Ovo mora da se promeni. Molimo kliknite ovdje za srpsku verziju (10 £ je približno 1300 RSD /11 EUR ).

My name is Jelena Dubovi. My partner Sunčica Kopunović and I have been together in a loving relationship for four years but Serbia doesn’t recognise same-sex relationships. This has to change.

We’re launching this legal fight for legal registration of same-sex couples in Serbia. Please contribute whatever you can to support our legal challenge but most importantly share this page with your friends and family on social media to help get the word out about this crucial battle for equality.

Like other LGBTI couples in this part of Europe, we suffer many injustices, pressures and threats. But we have decided to become the first couple in Serbia to talk openly about our fight and to use our full names.

By rejecting anonymity - we are fighting not only for our rights, but also for the rights of those who are unable to stand up and fight. We want to live up to the description of us in Politika (the oldest newspaper in the Balkans) as “women who gave their faces and names to thousands”.

We know Serbia is a conservative patriarchal country. The Belgrade Pride Parade could not happen without heavily-armed police protection.

But we want more than the right to march in a parade once a year.

We are only asking for the equal rights guaranteed by the Serbian Constitution to others - such as property and inheritance, spousal health coverage, medical power of attorney – to be real rights for us, on paper. The rights that everyone else takes for granted.

We want to be equal under the law. And in this struggle for our rights, we need your help.

We are raising 1 million RSD/£7,500 to cover the costs of taking our case – and the case of two other couples – to court and raise awareness of our campaign to change the law.

Your support means everything to us. Please donate and share this page now!

While this is a personal battle for us and the two other couples who join us, our success would also be a victory for the thousands of other same-sex couples in Serbia who want to be able to enter into a legal partnership.

Case Background

On 17 April 2019. we went to the Municipal Registrar in Novi Sad to register our relationship.

On 3 May 2019 the Sector for Personal Status of Citizens in Novi Sad (Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, City Administration for General Affairs, and Department for Administrative Procedure) refused our request, on the basis that the only relationships that can be registered are marriages and the conditions for the validity of marriage are not fulfilled as Sunčica and I are of the same sex.

The same thing happened to two other couples (M.K. and M.P.; and S.S. and M.M.) in Belgrade.

We believe that, by failing to register our relationships or provide a clear legal basis for registration, the Serbian administration has violated our rights under the Serbian Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR).

How are we going to win?

We have hired Marjana Majstorovic as our lawyer. Marjana is an experienced litigator before the Serbian courts and has successfully represented members of the LGBTI community before in equality cases. Marjana is supported on the legal team by the Equal Rights Trust, whose lawyers are experts in European standards on equality and the European Convention on Human Rights. Ashurst LLP are also providing some pro bono support.

Additionally, we need to raise awareness and engage the public in the case. Your donations will also help us engage campaign experts to speak to the media, conduct outreach in our communities and hope to build a groundswell of support. We know that, whatever we do, not everyone in Serbia will support our case and we need to be prepared for some backlash. Labris - Lesbian Human Rights Organization will be on hand to provide us with pastoral care and support through this process.

This is a really important strategic case and our team has already developed the strategy. We now need your support to take this to court and to the public!





Next steps

If the case progresses as we expect, we will need to prepare ourselves to take our case to Serbia’s Equality Commissioner, Ombudsperson and, ultimately, an appeal to the Constitutional Court. We are determined and will even go to the European Court of Human Rights if we need to. Money we raise beyond our target will help with these later stages, if required.













(10 £ je približno 1300 RSD /11 EUR )

Zovem se Jelena Dubovi. Moja partnerka, Sunčica Kopunović i ja smo u emotivnoj vezi već četiri godine, i živimo u Srbiji koja pravno ne prepoznaje istopolne parove. Ovo mora da se promeni.

Pokrenule smo pravnu borbu za registraciju istopolnih zajednica u Srbiji. Molimo vas da donirate koliko god ste u mogućnosti kako biste nas podržali/e i/ili da podelite ovu stranicu sa prijateljima/cama i porodicom, i da nam na ove načine pomognete da se proširi vest o važnosti naše borbe za ravnopravnost.

Kao i drugi LGBTI parovi u ovom delu Evrope, suočavamo se sa brojnim nepravdama, pritiscima i pretnjama. Uprkos tome, odlučile smo da pod svojim punim imenima budemo prvi par u Srbiji koji će otvoreno govoriti o svojoj borbi.

Znamo da je Srbija konzervativno i patrijarhalno društvo, i da se Beograd Prajd nije mogao održati bez teško naoružane policijske zaštite.

Želimo više od prava na šetnju u paradi jednom godišnje.

Zahtevamo prava koja Ustav Srbije garantuje svima – kao što su na primer zajednička imovina i nasleđivanje, supružnička zdravstvena i socijalna zaštita – da budu i nama obezbeđena i dostupna. Prava koja se uzimaju zdravo za gotovo od strane svih onih koji ih imaju, a nisu ni svesni koje su to životne privilegije.

Tražimo ravnopravnost pred zakonom, i u ovoj borbi za naša prava potrebna nam je vaša pomoć.

Cilj nam je da skupimo jedan milion RSD/£7,500 radi pokrivanja osnovnih troškova. Prvo radi finansiranja parnica za nas i još dva para, drugo za osmišljavanje i vođenje kampanje u cilju senzibilisanja javnosti za naše predmete i njihov značaj, a sve u cilju izglasavanja novog zakona u Narodnoj skupštini.

Vaša podrška nam je veoma važna. Molimo vas da donirate i podelite ovu stranicu!

Hronologija

Moja partnerka i ja smo, 17. aprila 2019. godine, otišle u opštinski matični ured u Novom Sadu sa zahtevom da registrujemo našu zajednicu.

Sektor za lična stanja građana u Novom Sadu (Autonomna pokrajina Vojvodina, Gradska uprava za opšte poslove, i Odsek za upravni postupak) je odlukom od dana 3. maja 2019. godine odbio naš zahtev, uz pravno obrazloženje da se u matičnu knjigu venčanih može registrovati isključivo bračna zajednica, te iako ispunjavamo gotovo sve zakonom propisane uslove, nisu nam dozvolili registraciju jer smo nas dve osobe istog pola.

I druga dva istopolna para iz Beograda (M.K. i M.P.; S.S. i M.M.) su dobila identično obrazloženje.

Smatramo da je matična služba odbijanjem da nas registruje, ili da nam obezbedi pravni okvir za ostvarivanje naših prava, izvršila povredu prava koja su nam garantovana Ustavom Republike Srbije i Evropskom konvencijom o ljudskim pravima i osnovnim slobodama (ESLJP).

Kako ćemo pobediti?

Naš pravni zastupnik je advokatica Marjana D. Majstorović. Marjana ima višegodišnje parnično iskustvo pred srpskim sudovima, i do sada je uspešno zastupala LGBTI klijente u predmetima borbe protiv diskriminacije i za ravnopravnost. Marjana sarađuje sa pravnim timom Equal Rights Trust-a, čiji su pravnici specijalizovani za primenu Evropskih standarda za ravnopravnost i Evropske konvencije o ljudskim pravima. Pro bono pravnu pomoć pruža ugledna međunarodna advokatska kancelarija Ashurst LLP iz Londona.

Nije dovoljna pravna borba ukoliko se ne deluje na promenu stavova i mišljenja šire javnosti u vezi LGBTI parova. Važno je da društvo razume naše probleme i razloge zbog kojih pokrećemo ovu borbu, a koji se odnose na svakodnevne životne muke i probleme sa kojima se suočavamo kao parovi. Sredstva prikupljena od vaših donacija bi bila usmerena na angažovanje uglednih PR stručnjaka koji bi nam pomogli da pridobijemo širu javnost. Svesne smo da neće svi u Srbiji dobro reagovati na našu kampanju i spremne smo za negativne reakcije, u kom slučaju ćemo imati podršku od strane Labris - organizacije za lezbejska ljudska prava.

Ovo je veoma važna parnica u sklopu šireg plana za dobijanje zakona. Zato nam je potrebna vaša podrška!

Naredni koraci

Očekujemo da svi naši zahtevi budu odbijeni od strane nadležnih administrativnih i sudskih institucija, u kom slučaju treba da pokrenemo odgovarajuće pravne postupke zbog kršenja ljudskih prava pred Zaštitnikom građana, Poverenicom za zaštitu ravnopravnosti i Ustavnim sudom. Rešene smo i spremne da idemo sve do Strazbura. Sredstva koja prikupimo iznad postavljenog cilja koristićemo za naredne korake, ukoliko budu neophodni.































