The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights presented its annual report on the state of human rights in Serbia in 2025 on Tuesday, 31 March. The report documents the key events and trends in the exercise of human rights that marked the previous year – from mass protests and systemic human rights violations to pressure on journalists, activists, teachers, the academic community, students, citizens and civil society organisations.
At the beginning of the presentation, Sonja Tošković, Executive Director of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, said that the 2025 report primarily focused on student-led and civic protests, as well as on the exercise of the rights to freedom of assembly, expression and association.
“If we view the report as a mirror of society, what we see in 2025 is deeply alarming. Strong pressure on citizens, the academic community, civil society and journalists is not something that only we have documented – it has also been noted by the international community,” Tošković said. She also stressed that international scrutiny of the human rights situation in Serbia was greater last year than ever before, pointing to as many as seven communications from United Nations Special Rapporteurs, as well as reports by the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.
Report editor Dušan Pokuševski noted that in 2025, “social polarisation reached a new level.”
“We are facing direct confrontation between citizens, who have never been more determined to protect their rights, and, on the other hand, increasingly repressive actions, primarily by the executive branch. In 2025, two highly dangerous trends were recorded – legal uncertainty caused by the arbitrary application of the law, and impunity for human rights violations,” Pokuševski said. He added that individual citizens feel unprotected and that the only way they see to fight for their rights is, together with others, to rely on what is guaranteed to them by the Constitution and international law – the right to freedom of assembly.
“Through freedom of assembly, citizens sought to express their views on the situation in society, and once again they ran into a wall. Last year, we witnessed a high degree of repression against them,” Pokuševski said. He also pointed out that “the state failed to fulfil its obligation under both the European Convention on Human Rights and the Constitution of Serbia” – namely, not to restrict the right to freedom of assembly and to protect participants in public gatherings.
“The most drastic examples were cars being driven into groups of assembled citizens. There were also provocations from the sidelines, but there was no police presence to protect citizens,” Pokuševski recalled. Journalists and human rights defenders were “particularly targeted”, Pokuševski said, recalling raids by the Criminal Police Directorate on the premises of civil society organisations “under the pretext of investigating the misuse of USAID funds”. “Of course, the collection of that information did not result in criminal proceedings,” he added.
Vladica Ilić, legal expert from the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, said that the police in Serbia are “today more protected than even the highest political officials”. “We have several ministers and not a single police officer against whom proceedings are being conducted,” Ilić said, recalling that the current head of the Criminal Police Directorate is Marko Kričak, against whom student Nikolina Sinđelić filed a lawsuit over abuse during the protests.
He also referred to the gathering held in Belgrade on 15 March 2025, which he described as, in some way, a “turning point” in the authorities’ treatment of Serbian citizens. He added that the investigation into that case is still at a very early stage, and noted that during his visit to Serbia in May, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights “expressed readiness for his office to conduct a fact-finding mission into the incidents of 15 March”. “Serbia’s institutions did not respond to the High Commissioner’s invitation.”
Sanja Radivojević of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights presented data provided by the Ministry of the Interior regarding the summer protests, stating that from June to September 2025, a total of 1,636 people were prosecuted in connection with the protests, while 779 were deprived of liberty. “A total of 1,372 people were prosecuted in misdemeanour proceedings, and 264 in criminal proceedings. Every time civic activism intensifies, the Police Directorate acts in a way that results in as many people as possible being prosecuted – not because there are justified grounds for such action, but because it serves as a repressive measure and a message to citizens about what they may be exposed to if they engage in any form of civil disobedience,” she said.
She added that the same pattern had been visible after the elections at the turn of 2023 and 2024, as well as after the local elections held on 30 March. Of the 779 people detained between June and September 2025, 307 were held for up to 48 hours, while the criminal charges brought against them were mostly for violent behaviour, obstruction of an official in the performance of duty, and assault on an official.
“One piece of information that the Ministry of the Interior did not provide us with, but which we obtained from the media, is that a large number of charges were brought for the criminal offence of endangering and undermining the constitutional order. Over the past year, this offence has emerged as both current and increasingly frequent, although in criminal law practice it had previously been very rare for anyone to be charged with it,” Radivojević said.
Katarina Golubović of the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM reflected on the state of the judiciary in 2025, noting that it was under particular pressure and scrutiny. On the one hand, this came from the public, through the concrete demands of students and citizens that institutions effectively establish accountability for the Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse; on the other hand, it came through severe pressure from the executive branch. She noted that all proceedings initiated in connection with the canopy collapse are particularly indicative from the perspective of human rights standards – especially the rights of victims to justice, truth, and an effective remedy – and that none of these proceedings has even begun, let alone led to any resolution.
At the end of the presentation, report editor Dušan Pokuševski stressed that the citizens of Serbia “have never been more united in their desire to protect their rights”.
“They have never been more ready to stand up to those who violate their rights, to reject the role of subjects, and to step forward in defence of human rights,” he concluded.
The report “Human Rights in Serbia 2025” in English is available at this LINK.
You can watch a recording of the report presentation held at the Miljenko Dereta Space here:
