From June 10 to 23, 14 participants of the Regional Youth Leadership and Mobility Program (RYLMP) stayed in Belgrade, where they attended various workshops and meetings with representatives from the non-governmental and government sectors.
Commemorating the 29th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, citizens of Serbia, activists, and colleagues from other organizations joined the Youth Initiative for Human Rights in a gathering at the park between the City Assembly and the Presidency of Serbia.
Dear friends, We need your support in our legal battle against hate speech and in defense of the "Mirdita, Dobar Dan!" festival. Recent attacks have led to the unlawful banning of the festival, jeopardizing our efforts to enhance cultural exchange and reconciliation between the people of Kosovo and Serbia.
Today, after 2:00 p.m, The Youth Initiative for Human Rights received verbal notification from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia regarding the ban on all events within the "Miredita, Dobar Dan" festival. The ban was formally communicated as an order to cease the gathering, initially verbally and then in writing, encompassing all the activities associated with the festival, both public events and those intended solely for participants.
One of the volunteers engaged in an NGO in Belgrade, an Albanian from Pristina, talks over the phone with her worried mom׃ "Don't worry, mom, I’m having a great time here." Another frightened teenager who had been refusing to go to Croatia for summer vacation with his parents, believing that he would be slaughtered there by the Ustashas, returned from a trip through Istria with completely different views.
