Human Rights Action (HRA) strongly condemns the incitement to hatred and violence against the organizers and participants of tomorrow’s gathering for the protection of human rights of sexual minorities and transgender persons in Montenegro, and particularly the action of displaying obituaries with a photograph and the name of the President of LGBT Forum Progress and organizer of the first Pride Parade in Montenegro, Zdravko Cimbaljević, which was carried out last night in Budva. This act constitutes a criminal offense of endangering the safety that must be effectively punished in order to prevent its repetition or more serious consequences.

The State is obliged to provide everyone with unobstructed exercise of human rights to freedom of assembly and movement, regardless of personal characteristics, and we expect that the police will accordingly protect the organizers and participants of tomorrow’s gathering from violent persons who would like to deny everyone they, for some reason, do not like of these rights.

The first Pride Parade, which will take place tomorrow in Budva, will show to the world the achieved level of tolerance in Montenegro and the willingness of its citizens to respect their fellow citizens, friends and family members, despite their differences.