CRTA Address at the session of the PACE monitoring committee

Read the full speech of Rasa Nedeljkov, Crta’s Program Director at the session of the PACE monitoring committee held on the 8 April 2025.

Honorable members of the Committee, respected monitoring co-rapporteurs,

For over five months, citizens of Serbia have been filling the streets to demand the rule of law, separation of powers, and protection of human rights – principles our country pledged to uphold as part of the Council of Europe. Government officials dismiss those demands as an attempt of a “color revolution”, financed by the West, to destroy Serbian state sovereignty. Law and justice mechanisms serve as tools of repression against the people, in favor of the political power-holders’ criminal acts against the state.

The consequences are severe. Lives are lost under the weight of corruption, and peaceful protesters face unprecedented violence. On March 15, at the largest-ever citizen gathering, thousands were attacked and injured by an unknown device while silently commemorating victims of the Novi Sad tragedy.

There were around 130 assaults on protesters since November – including almost 50 car attacks and more than 40 physical assaults, some leaving victims with serious injuries; almost none of these cases have got an epilogue before justice. The government is fueling violence – the recent attack with a knife on the dean of the Philosophy Faculty in Nis was described by the President of Serbia as a naive cut one gets while peeling a cucumber. 

In the days preceding the March 15 student-led protest, the government launched a massive campaign of intimidation. The President of Serbia mobilized the Government, Radio Television of Serbia, all of the pro-government media, Serbian Progressive Party – to foresee chaos and violence, and announce the state’s repressive measures. 

The government even installed a camp of “students who want to learn” at the location where the student-led protest was supposed to unveil. It was more of a paramilitary and criminal camp since it hosted groups involved in war crimes and Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic’s assassination.

Once the peculiar sound and airwave injured protesters, the government denied everything rather than pursuing an investigation. It kept pushing toward hostility and conflict, manipulating Prosecution to detain opposition leaders and other individuals who publicly spoke about the use of the sonic weapon.

These events must not surprise us. For a long time, we have been documenting the government’s moves aimed at legitimizing an undemocratic agenda and a crackdown against the checks and balances and critical voices of the people of Serbia.

A year ago, we were standing here in front of you to report on the fraud from the December 2023 elections. What the CRTA Election Observation Mission disclosed was the culmination of years of manipulations with elections aimed at depriving citizens of the right to vote freely. For criminalization of the state institutions and deeds against the Voter Registry, freedom of vote, and election observers – no one has been held accountable.

In the climate of impunity, which students are challenging, with the support of 80% of the population, the state is stoking fear of “color revolution”, with reasoning and the vocabulary in Kremlin style. 

Pro-government media keep demonizing civil society, activists, journalists… anyone who dares to criticise. Aiming to delegitimize the student protests, three national and numerous cable channels aired in prime-time the same “program” – illegally surveilled conversations of youth and political activists. The next morning, the activists were arrested. They are still detained, facing charges of “attacking the constitutional order”.

The pattern is that the media normalize harsher forms of repression, which get employed soon afterward: individuals were detained at the country’s borders on no clear grounds; civil society offices were raided;  massive surveillance targets activists, journalists, opposition figures; foreign citizens are expelled from the country. There were at least 50 arrests since the protests began, 30 taking place only in March. This is a strategy of ever-expanding oppression. Citizens are subjected to political persecution, while those who violate their rights remain protected. Attackers on Faculty of Dramatic Arts students and professors – the incident that triggered student blockades – have not been fully identified, nor have their responsibility been established.

Within the overarching “color revolution” narrative, officially declared disinformation that the USAID is an “organized criminal group” was used as a ground for the attack on NGOs. Pro-government media announced the police raid on CRTA’s premises before officers even arrived on February 25. Acting at the Public Prosecutor’s behest, around 20 armed members of the Crime Department for the Fight Against Corruption stormed our offices with undue force. This department—comprising about 50 officers—was ostensibly tasked with investigating several civil society organizations, and nearly 40% of its entire unit descended on CRTA alone under the pretext of searching for USAID documents.

Sending armed police officers to inspect the documentation of a democracy watchdog can only serve as an intimidation technique. CRTA was not given any rationale for the investigation. Police took 8.500 pages of copied project documentation concerning USAID projects from the last 8 years. 

We fear the information will be misused to further the smear campaign. Without lawful access, the President of Serbia has already used and manipulated parts of the seized information to promote the “color revolution” narrative. 

This is a warning that the looming threat of a foreign agents’ law should be taken seriously. It took only 48 hours to adopt such a law in Republika Srpska.

We urge all democratic partners to recognize the severity of these actions and to defend the fundamental liberties that safeguard our society from authoritarian rule. At the same time, we commend your and co-rapporteurs’ steadfast dedication to Serbia. We respectfully request that you continue to scrutinize developments more closely.

We urge you to set firm deadlines and coordinate with the Council of Europe’s relevant bodies and other international institutions to ensure that Serbia’s government fulfills its commitments. Thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to ensuring the fundamental values and freedoms that should be upheld in Serbia.