We started our activities in March 1975, when a direct action for overall self- protection was established with an initial task to protect the rights of our founders and other citizens who might turn to the organization with appeals. Already then we asserted that human rights were violated massively; at the time this was contested from many sides, only to be evident nowadays that our assessment was correct. 

In April 1981 we became Action for Struggle Against Abuse of Psychiatry for Political Purposes in order to support the verbal offenders that were punished with placement into psychiatric wards rather than into prisons (after falsified psychiatric expert opinions whereby they had been declared mentally incompetent patients). Several of the victims that we had supported were given the status of “prisoners of conscience” by Amnesty International. We were also given support by the Board for Defense of Freedom of Thought and Expression that had twelve prominent members from the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences who, in January 1986, issued a very noted announcement asserting that psychiatry was abused for political purposes in the country. Similar announcements were issued at the time by the Board for Human Rights of the Association of Serbian Writers and other boards for human rights throughout former Yugoslavia. That is how a true movement against abuse of psychiatry for political purposes was established, which contributed to a close possibility to have the country excluded from the World Psychiatry Association membership. Since more and more citizens – the victims of various forms of lawlessness – started to contact us with their appeals, in 1986 we became a Committee for Protection of Human Rights, only to turn into the Movement for Protection of Human Rights in 1989, having priorly achieved characteristics of a massive organization. In September 1990 we were registered as a political party for an exclusive reason to gain access to the mass media and thus avoid a total media blockade. (At election time, parties are given right to have TV presentations.) In fact, we are a humanitarian and non-political organization, and the participation in elections was seen as an opportunity to come out with our own views. 

The Movement for Protection of Human Rights was founded and has consisted of the citizens who have looked for ways to save themselves from unjustified violations of their rights. They have never wished to be engaged in politics or to fight for power and confront the legitimate authorities; their activities were a consequence rather than a cause of violation of their rights. In that period we used to be an object of exceptional attention by various authority organs and of attempts to be given a false identification in the country (as protectors of other nationalities to the detriment of the Serbs) and abroad (as a Serbian nationalist organization). We can not allow to have a false label because we are honest citizens and patriots: we pledge for respect of human rights not only of the Serbs, but of all other ethnical groups that live in our country, as well. We favor respect of laws and the Constitution, democracy and welfare of our citizens, and the country’s inclusion in the structures of the international community. 

The history of the Movement for Protection of Human Rights is a history of a struggle for survival, of painstaking work, of deprivation, of torments, of all kinds of blockades and oppressions. (For example, until recently we had no office room, no resources of any kind and no infrastructure, and we were under a media and telecommunication isolation and were exposed to all kinds of blows.) 

We have participated in all the previous elections in Serbia, and in completely unequal conditions, deprived of any resources, we still won at the 1992 elections the 15th place among 104 competitors. If the election system were a direct proportional one, we would have had a single elector in the Serbian Parliament. 

Early in 1992 we organized in Belgrade several very well attended rallies of the damaged foreign currency saving depositors. The state banks had seized several billions of German Marks from several hundred thousands of Serbian depositors, so we opened the issue of returning the seized foreign currency. In 1992 we also initiated the SVO – Serbian Out- of-Parliament Opposition – that included the following parties (in addition to our participation): Serbian St. Sava Party, National Radical Party, Old Radical Party, Progressive Party, Democratic Party Davidovic-Groll, All-Serbian Alliance, Yugoslav Demochristian Party, Movement for Unification of Serbia and Montenegro, Serbian Royalist Block, Party of Independent Enterpreneurs and Craftsmen, Liberal Party, and Radical Party of Unification. (The coalition has not survived – there arise new and different political alliances nowadays.) 

A war broke out as the result of the breakup of earlier (former) Yugoslavia, causing a deterioration of the state of human rights in new Yugoslavia and Serbia. Today, we have a massive, systematic and flagrant violation of human rights. In the last few months our position has improved considerably: we provided with office space, we have a phone/fax and a PC with access to Internet and our own web page. Some of the independent media are opening towards us: for example, Belgrade’s Demokratija has published lately several of our announcements. 

But, in spite of the significant steps forward, the authorities’ general attitude towards us has not changed to a sufficient extent: there are attempts of manipulation and false labeling, various blockades and (particularly) there still exists unjustified oppression against our people just because they politely demand a respect of their rights. 

The Movement for Protection of Human Rights, while remaining consistent in its original principles and resisting all the storms and blows, survives and proceeds forward. 

We do not wish to be engaged in politics or to confront anybody; we just wish to help other people avoid the difficulties and shocks of the changes now taking place in our country. We want to help them survive more easily. Our main goal today is creation of a climate of trust and elimination of poor assessments between citizens and the authorities of our country for the purpose of a reconciliation and mutual harmony – the accord with the other ethnical groups. We are for respect of human rights and individual freedoms, for peace and functioning of institutions of the legal system and civil society within our country and throughout Europe.