Let Love Be Law - Ljubav mora biti zakon!
Let Love Be Law - Ljubav mora biti zakon!
Zovem se Jelena Dubovi. Moja partnerka, Sunčica Kopunović i ja smo u emotivnoj vezi već četiri godine, i živimo u Srbiji koja pravno ne prepoznaje istopolne parove. Ovo mora da se promeni. Molimo kliknite ovdje za srpsku verziju (10 £ je približno 1300 RSD /11 EUR ).
My name is Jelena Dubovi. My partner Sunčica Kopunović and I have been together in a loving relationship for four years but Serbia doesn’t recognise same-sex relationships. This has to change.
We’re launching this legal fight for legal registration of same-sex couples in Serbia. Please contribute whatever you can to support our legal challenge but most importantly share this page with your friends and family on social media to help get the word out about this crucial battle for equality.
Like other LGBTI couples in this part of Europe, we suffer many injustices, pressures and threats. But we have decided to become the first couple in Serbia to talk openly about our fight and to use our full names.
By rejecting anonymity - we are fighting not only for our rights, but also for the rights of those who are unable to stand up and fight. We want to live up to the description of us in Politika (the oldest newspaper in the Balkans) as “women who gave their faces and names to thousands”.
We know Serbia is a conservative patriarchal country. The Belgrade Pride Parade could not happen without heavily-armed police protection.
But we want more than the right to march in a parade once a year.
We are only asking for the equal rights guaranteed by the Serbian Constitution to others - such as property and inheritance, spousal health coverage, medical power of attorney – to be real rights for us, on paper. The rights that everyone else takes for granted.
We want to be equal under the law. And in this struggle for our rights, we need your help.
We are raising 1 million RSD/£7,500 to cover the costs of taking our case – and the case of two other couples – to court and raise awareness of our campaign to change the law.
Your support means everything to us. Please donate and share this page now!
While this is a personal battle for us and the two other couples who join us, our success would also be a victory for the thousands of other same-sex couples in Serbia who want to be able to enter into a legal partnership.
Case Background
On 17 April 2019. we went to the Municipal Registrar in Novi Sad to register our relationship.
On 3 May 2019 the Sector for Personal Status of Citizens in Novi Sad (Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, City Administration for General Affairs, and Department for Administrative Procedure) refused our request, on the basis that the only relationships that can be registered are marriages and the conditions for the validity of marriage are not fulfilled as Sunčica and I are of the same sex.
The same thing happened to two other couples (M.K. and M.P.; and S.S. and M.M.) in Belgrade.
We believe that, by failing to register our relationships or provide a clear legal basis for registration, the Serbian administration has violated our rights under the Serbian Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR).
How are we going to win?
We have hired Marjana Majstorovic as our lawyer. Marjana is an experienced litigator before the Serbian courts and has successfully represented members of the LGBTI community before in equality cases. Marjana is supported on the legal team by the Equal Rights Trust, whose lawyers are experts in European standards on equality and the European Convention on Human Rights. Ashurst LLP are also providing some pro bono support.
Additionally, we need to raise awareness and engage the public in the case. Your donations will also help us engage campaign experts to speak to the media, conduct outreach in our communities and hope to build a groundswell of support. We know that, whatever we do, not everyone in Serbia will support our case and we need to be prepared for some backlash. Labris - Lesbian Human Rights Organization will be on hand to provide us with pastoral care and support through this process.
This is a really important strategic case and our team has already developed the strategy. We now need your support to take this to court and to the public!
Next steps
If the case progresses as we expect, we will need to prepare ourselves to take our case to Serbia’s Equality Commissioner, Ombudsperson and, ultimately, an appeal to the Constitutional Court. We are determined and will even go to the European Court of Human Rights if we need to. Money we raise beyond our target will help with these later stages, if required.
Ljubav mora biti zakon!
(10 £ je približno 1300 RSD /11 EUR )
Zovem se Jelena Dubovi. Moja partnerka, Sunčica Kopunović i ja smo u emotivnoj vezi već četiri godine, i živimo u Srbiji koja pravno ne prepoznaje istopolne parove. Ovo mora da se promeni.
Pokrenule smo pravnu borbu za registraciju istopolnih zajednica u Srbiji. Molimo vas da donirate koliko god ste u mogućnosti kako biste nas podržali/e i/ili da podelite ovu stranicu sa prijateljima/cama i porodicom, i da nam na ove načine pomognete da se proširi vest o važnosti naše borbe za ravnopravnost.
Želimo više od prava na šetnju u paradi jednom godišnje.
Tražimo ravnopravnost pred zakonom, i u ovoj borbi za naša prava potrebna nam je vaša pomoć.
Vaša podrška nam je veoma važna. Molimo vas da donirate i podelite ovu stranicu!
I druga dva istopolna para iz Beograda (M.K. i M.P.; S.S. i M.M.) su dobila identično obrazloženje.
Get updates about this case
Subscribe to receive email updates from the case owner on the latest news about the case.
Be a promoter
Your share on Facebook could raise £26 for the case
I'll share on FacebookNo updates yet
Get updates about this case
Subscribe to receive email updates from the case owner on the latest news about the case.
Recent contributions