The Report on Attacks on Human Rights Defenders in Serbia for 2022 was prepared based on information gathered throughout the year by the Solidarity for the Rights of All team, led by the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM) in partnership with the Belgrade Center for Security Policy (BCSP) and the People’s Parliament association. The report was supported by the Delegation of the European Union and the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR). On November 7, 2020, YUCOM has launched Serbia’s first interactive map of attacks and pressures on human rights defenders. These reports aim to provide domestic and international audiences with easy access to current data on the status of human rights defenders in Serbia, information that has not been available on similar regional or international platforms. Growing public awareness of the seriousness of the issue is largely due to the networking of organizations and individuals, who collectively resisted the state’s increasingly intense attacks and circumvented the media blockade through social media.

In 2022, the map recorded 43 attacks, but this figure reflects the methodology, which categorizes group attacks as single incidents for practical reasons. The collected data shows that in 2022, the most threatened “umbrella rights” were freedom of expression, freedom of association, and freedom of assembly. According to the data and YUCOM’s assessment, at least 12,000 people -whether activists or bystanders—were impacted by these attacks.