GSA in campaign “Your vote, your tomorrow”

Belgrade, 5 February 2014

Gay Straight Alliance (GSA; Alliance) is starting another campaign in this election cycle for the upcoming parliamentary elections – the new campaign is called “Your vote, your tomorrow“.

tvojGLAStvojeSUTRAThe campaign’s goal is to make political parties and groups which will participate in the elections take a public stance on questions regarding human rights, including the rights of LGBT people, as well as to include these issues in their pre-election programmes and platforms, offering concrete solutions for reducing violence, discrimination and homophobia. Another aim of the campaign is to invite LGBT people, as well as their parents, relatives, friends and other citizens to vote for those political options which, among other things, advocate for improving the status of LGBT people, for equality and respect of human and minority rights.

GSA has invited today all political organisations which announced their participation in the elections to address the LGBT population in their campaigns. In this invitation, the Alliance stated that, even though economic issues, measures and programmes are extremely important for all Serbian citizens, including LGBT citizens, their election campaigns should not ignore other vital issues, such as human rights, safety and quality of life for members of minority groups, as well as other citizens.

The Alliance will also monitor the election campaigns of political parties and groups with regard to human rights, and especially LGBT rights, and will keep the LGBT community and the general public informed on these topics. The main monitoring criteria are the following:

  • Do they address the LGBT population in their campaigns, and do their platforms include human rights, i.e. LGBT rights;
  • Do they offer concrete solutions for raising tolerance and reducing violence, discrimination and homophobia;
  • Do they support certain legislative solutions (e.g. legal regulation of property and other questions that are of importance for same-sex partnerships);
  • Do they publicly support LGBT rights, or do they use hate speech and homophobia in their campaign;
  • Do they have out-LGBT people among their candidates?

GSA’s campaign “Your vote, your tomorrow“ will mostly take part on the Internet and through social networks, and all interested citizens will be able to follow the campaign on GSA’s website in the column Elections 2014 (www.en.gsa.org.rs/elections-2014). The campaign will also include questionnaires for political parties and candidates, and it will conclude with a public debate with the representatives of political organisations which are participating in the elections. GSA will also write a comprehensive report on their pre-election attitudes towards the rights of LGBT people, which will be published before the pre-electoral silence.

In the last elections which took place in May 2012, GSA conducted a similar campaign, called “It matters!“, which met with a high degree of approval from both LGBT people and other citizens, and which successfully set the standards in activities and mechanisms for monitoring elections in this field that will be used again in the new campaign.

One of the starting points of the campaign “Your vote, your tomorrow“ is going to be a brief overview of everything that has been done by both governing and opposition parties since the last elections in matters of human rights of LGBT people and support for the LGBT population.

GSA as an organisation will not endorse any specific political organisation during the pre-election period, but, through the campaign “Your vote, your tomorrow“, GSA wishes to give everyone a clear insight regarding the attitudes of political parties, groups and coalitions towards the human rights of LGBT people.

Info Centre GSA

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube