Voices against Silcene: Protests in Serbia
For more than a year, mostly young people have been taking to the streets across Serbia. The protests, which began after the collapse of the Novi Sad train station canopy in November 2024, have developed into a broader movement against what demonstrators describe as government mismanagement and corruption. Dalia Koler from the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) in Belgrade criticizes the government’s response to the protests, describing it as part of a long-standing pattern of repressions toward civil society and, in particular, women’s rights organizations.
What is the goal of the current protests?
The protests started as a simple, urgent demand: accountability for the collapse of the Novi Sad train station canopy on November 1st, 2024. But instead of action, we got media manipulation and violent crackdowns on peaceful citizens.
At this point, the protests aren’t just about individuals anymore. This is a protest for systemic change, for a Serbia where leaders answer to citizens rather than the other way around.
What is the current situation for civil society organizations and, specifically, women's rights organizations in Serbia?
All civil society organizations in Serbia – including women’s rights organizations – are under sustained, coordinated attack by the government. This didn’t start with the protests; it’s part of a much longer pattern of hostility. For years, the government has tried to delegitimize organizations dealing with “sensitive” issues: confronting the past, advocating for women’s rights, and supporting LGBTQ+ communities.
Women’s rights groups challenge the deeply patriarchal structures and nationalist myths the government leans on for legitimacy. That makes them a direct threat to the power structure: not because of violence, but because of ideas.
How is the current situation - the protests and their repressions - affecting YIHR's project work?
YIHR and its staff are being targeted both as an organization and as individuals. In the past year alone, we have faced festival bans, pig heads and other dead animal parts delivered to our office, leaked participant lists, border authorities preventing staff from crossing, tabloid spies attending our programs, intense media smear campaigns, and activists forced into political exile.
During the protests, these attacks escalated. We’ve had to adapt our programs, focusing on the knowledge and skills most needed at this time, including contextualizing current events within the history of the 1990s. The more young people engage politically, the more they see how dealing with the past shapes the present and future. Our educational approach now explicitly connects contemporary activism and civic engagement to transitional justice, historical memory, and systemic accountability.
(How) is the current situation affecting women's rights and the issue of violence against women?
The current climate in Serbia is making life increasingly dangerous for women. Femicides are rising, and instead of protecting women, the government is proposing laws that redefine rape into something called a “nonconsensual affair”, where the degree of assault depends on how loud a woman says “no.”
But more and more youth are aware, vocal, and fearless in calling out injustice. They’re connecting today’s violence with the impunity of the 1990s, understanding that silence, whether about war crimes or gender-based violence, only protects abusers. In a country where institutions debate the volume of “no,” the new generation is finally learning to say it louder than ever.
