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AN OVERVIEW OF GENERAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC SITUATION IN SERBIA
professionally and properly to the cases of violence against Roma, it still happens that
police officers themselves show racism when working with Roma 178 .
§ 114. Several Roma political parties are registered in Serbia. At the 2008 parliamentary
election, only Democratic Roma Left managed to win one seat in the National Assembly.
115. In October 2009, with the exhibition of Roma written culture under the title “Alav
e romengo”, the first Museum of Roma Culture 179 was opened in Belgrade as the first
museum of this kind in Europe. The Museum has been established by “Roma Community
Center 8 April” with support of the Assembly of the City of Belgrade because of the need
to collect, systematize and present the artifacts of Roma culture. Since the space in which
the museum was located became insufficient one year later, one part of materials was
presented as a virtual museum.
§ 116. The Strategy for Improvement of the Status of Roma in the Republic of Serbia was
adopted in 2009, as well as the Roma Health Action Plan for the period 2009-2015.
§ 117. Roma community in Serbia is rather large but Roma people are talked about only in
the context of poverty, unhygienic settlements, begging and forced marriages, while very
little is known about Roma culture, history and tradition. Although having lived here for
centuries, Roma people in Serbia are treated as newcomers who do not belong here, but
while they are here at least they should know their place.
I.8. Nongovernmental Organizations in Serbia
§ 118. Modern societies are characterized by a developed civil society sector which is
an important agent of social control. Nongovernmental organizations in Serbia emerged
during the 1990s. These organizations have arisen out of a need to bridge the gaps that
existed within the communist system or emerged after its collapse and, more importantly,
to initiate changes and draw attention to various irregularities and shortcomings in the
building of a new social system. Because of insisting on questions that were not desirable
or prioritized for official politics, such as human rights, war crimes, responsibility, violence
and the like, they were under permanent pressure of the Milošević regime. Their prominent
activists were subjected to fierce media campaign, being marked as “traitors”, “spies”,
“non-patriots” and “foreign mercenaries”. Public opinion was made to see NGOs as a
group of people that worked following “instructions from abroad”, thus making enormous
profits. It is still difficult to deconstruct some of the stereotypes built at that time.
§ 119. Although it was expected that change of the climate in society in 2000 would
bring changes in the perception and actual status of NGOs, it did not happen. At first
new democratic administration was more benevolent towards civil society activists.
Government and NGOs started working in partnership, but it soon became obvious that,
with a few exceptions, communication and cooperation often resulted from the pressure
178
Ibid.
179
http://www.romamuseum.rs
HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA - Report for the period 2000-2010 45