Legal provisions which ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in sport in Serbia

Zorica Mršević

Institute of Social Science Belgrade Serbia

UNITED AGAINST HOMOPHOBIA IN SPORTS

11th and 12th October 2012, Utrecht, the Netherlands

Constitution of Serbia

without explicit determination of sexual orientation as a

protected groun

prohibits discrimination by its Article 21:

• All are equal before the Constitution and law. Everyone shall have the right to equal legal protection, without discrimination. All direct or indirect discrimination based on any grounds, particularly on race, sex, national origin, social origin, birth, religion, political or other opinion, property status, culture, language, age, mental or physical disability shall be prohibited.

Article 23 stipulates

• human dignity is inviolable and everyone shall be obliged to respect and protect it.

• Everyone shall have the right to free development of his personality if this does not violate the rights of others guaranteed by the Constitution.

The Law on prohibition of discrimination

without explicitly protecting sport domain of any kind of

discrimination

Article 4:

• All persons shall be equal and shall enjoy equal status and equal legal protection regardless of personal characteristics. Everyone shall be obligated to respect the principle of equality, that is to say, the prohibition of discrimination.

Article 16: Discrimination in the sphere of labour

• It is forbidden to exercise discrimination in the sphere of labour; that is to say, to violate the principle of equal opportunity for gaining employment or equal conditions for enjoying all the rights pertaining to the sphere of labour,.

such as:

• the right to employment, free choice of employment, promotion, professional training and professional rehabilitation, equal pay for work of equal value, fair and satisfactory working conditions, paid vacation, joining a trade union and protection from unemployment

Article 21: Discrimination on the grounds of sexual

orientation• Sexual orientation shall be a private

matter, and no one may be called to publicly declare his/her sexual orientation. Everyone shall have the right to declare his/her sexual orientation, and discriminatory treatment on account of such a declaration shall be forbidden

Law on sport

• without explicit determination sexual discrimination among

protected grounds

the article 10.

• bans discrimination but sexual orientation is not explicitly mentioned but rather assumed under the other personal charcteristic

It is forbidden to directly or indirectly discriminate

• against athletes in their performance of sports activities, on the grounds of their personal characteristics, gender, status, orientation or belief.

• This includes discrimination against professional athletes and those who want to become professionals, with regard to employment, wages or conditions of work,

except in a situation• when the act of differentiating between

athletes, i.e. of putting an athlete in a less favorable position in comparison to other athletes in an identical or similar situation, is based on the very nature of a particular sports activity or on real and decisive conditions for performance of such activity, with the aim to achieve justified results

Article 26 paragraph 11

• The provisions on prohibition of discrimination from Article 10 of this Law shall be accordingly applicable to sports experts and experts in the field of sports as well.

Law on youth by its Article 5 stipulates

• The Principle of Equality and Prohibition of Discrimination. All young people shall be equal. It shall be prohibited to differentiate or unequally treat young people, whether directly or indirectly, on the grounds

Protected grounds:

• race, gender, nationality, religion, language, social origin, property, membership in political parties and other organizations, mental or physical disability, health status, physical appearance, sexual orientation, gender identity and other real or assumed personal characteristic.

Article 6, The Principle of Equal Opportunity, stipulates

• that young people shall have the right on equal opportunities and participation in all spheres of social life in line with their own choices and capacities.

Labor Code Article 18:

• Both direct and indirect discriminations are prohibited against persons seeking employment and employees in respect to:

Protected grounds:• sex, origin, language, race, color of

skin, age, pregnancy, health status or disability, nationality, religion, marital status, familial commitments, sexual orientation, political or other belief, social background, financial status, membership in political organizations, trade unions or any other personal quality.

Policy documents

• Strategy for sport development and the Action plan for implementation of the Strategy for the period 2009 – 2013

• both, don’t comprise any antidiscrimination provision, on any legally recognized ground.

• Moreover, both don’t mention anywhere sexual orientation.

The Commissionaire for protection of equality

• didn’t get any case of discrimination based on sexual

orientation in sports.

The case of “Andrija”

• is the hypothetic case constructed for the purpose of legal exercise, made of combination of two real

cases

Young football player

• after an excellent first year of his professional career in one of the biggest football clubs,

• is now faced with possible termination of his sport career

• because his homosexuality was revealed by his coach.

Chances for changes in the near future:

• National Strategy against discrimination is in process of drafting and Mrsevic is in charge for the antidiscrimination of the LGBT people.

The new Strategy for sport

• is promised by the new Minister of sport and youth to be drafted very soon and

• this is a chance to make efforts to introduce antidiscrimination provisions,

• including sexual orientation as a protected ground against discrimination.

Necessary changes of FIFA’s and UEFA’s attitude

• Awareness of the deep history of homophobia in football culture, which still is very strong.

• Sexism and homophobia are both openly expressed within the most professional halls of sports culture, said Sepp Blatter of the FIFA

Example for the very neighborhood:

• 2011 FIFA — along wth the UEFA — reconfirmed

• Vlatko Markovic for a fourth term as president of the Croatian Football Federation despite the fact that

• he told the press in late 2010 that:

[a]s long as I’m president of the Croatian Football Federation there will be no gay players.

Thank goodness only healthy people play football

Conclusions on Serbia

• The most discriminated groups are:

• the Roma, persons with disabilities and sexual minorities

Discrimination based on

• ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation

• remains widespread

• And further measures to fight

• all forms of discrimination are needed

After recent ban of the Pride Parade• Negative public feeling towards LGBT

people is getting higher, stabile and widely spread among state officials, e.g.

• Citizen’s protector didn’t issue any statement in regard on the banned Parade

• Motivated or by agreement with the ban either by fear to be seen as the LGBT ally

CONCLUSION• Constitution does not mention sexual

orientation as a forbidden ground of discriminaiton, as well as the Law on sport

• Law prohibiting discrimination does not mention sport among domains where discrimination is banned

• Policy documents on sport does not mention any discrimination, including discrimination of the LGBT people as forbidden

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

www.zoricamrsevic.in.rs

ZMRSEVIC@IDN.ORG.RS