The Coalition against Discrimination strongly condemns the yesterday's racially motivated attack on A.O., a third grade student of the Secondary School of Commerce, which occurred in Belgrade. The attack on this young man was accompanied by racist insults and curses, which in addition to serious bodily harm, violated the dignity of this young man. A quick response of the police that have already arrested the perpetrators deserves praise and raises hope that the police will respond promptly and efficiently also in other similar cases with less media coverage.

In the past year, the Coalition against Discrimination recorded several cases of racially motivated attacks on Roma men and women and their homes, and other racist incidents to which the state authorities failed to respond in a proper manner. The investigation often ended with an indictment against unknown persons, and the motive of hatred towards the members of a minority group was not considered to be an aggravating circumstance. We emphasise that the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination stipulates that the punishable offences in which hatred or hostility towards a person because of his/her personal characteristic is a predominant or exclusive motive qualify as severe discrimination.

Moreover, the unambiguously racist attacks are often characterised as peer violence, hooligan incidents, usual quarrels among the neighbours, and so on. Even the Roma National Council, a body that should unreservedly represent the interests of its ethnic community, refrained to call the yesterday's event by its right name, opting for the neutral term "vandalism". By avoiding naming these attacks by their right name, we avoid facing with the essence of the problem. Therefore, we once again emphasise the importance of codifying hate crimes and introducing adequate legal penalties for the offences perpetrated out of hatred towards a minority group.
At the same time, the members of minority communities often, understandably, distrust the state and its institutions, and the hate crimes that go unpunished do not contribute to building confidence and do not encourage them to report these crimes. Particularly disconcerting is the indifference of society that has normalised racist stereotypes and insults, many of which have found their place in the media, literature, textbooks, and so on. Hence, in addition to the adoption of the laws and their consistent application, it is important to work on changing people's consciousness and achieving the commitment of the entire society that any form of racism will not be tolerated.

The members of the Coalition against Discrimination are: Center for Advanced Legal Studies, Civil Rights Defenders, Labris - Lesbian Human Rights Organisation, Anti-Trafficking Centre, Network of the Committees for Human Rights in Serbia (CHRIS Network), Association of Students with Disabilities, Gayten LGBT, Praxis and Regional Center for Minorities.

The statement is supported by Women in Black.