Threatening, stopping someone in the street, intimidating and directing inappropriate comments towards LGBT+ people are still part of everyday life in Serbia. Despite the existing legislative and strategic framework, the adequate reactions of legal institutions regarding hate crimes motivated by homophobia and transphobia are often missing.
More about us
Organization Da se zna!
Who are we?
Da se zna! is an association of citizens founded in 2016, with the main focus on mapping and documenting the illegal treatment of LGBT + people in the Republic of Serbia.
As we have grown over time and expanded our scope of activities, today we are primarily focused on strengthening the community through legal and psychological support, direct work with the community and conducting campaigns, but also on various advocacy activities aimed at relevant institutions and decision makers.
Da se zna!
offers support to LGBTTIQA people by improving the efficiency of the protection system and
advocating for adequate reactions from the state institutions.
We want
a Serbia where all of its citizens have the same rights and equal opportunities regardless of their personal characteristics, including their sexual orientation and gender identity.
We aspire
to reduce the level of discrimination and violence towards LGBT+ people and to contribute
to greater acceptance and integration of LGBT+ citizens into the Serbian society.
We value
diversity as an advantage of our society, we include all persons who share our values and are willing to work together to achieve our goals in our work.
We initiate
cooperation with other LGBT+ organizations and human rights organizations at the national and international level, as well as with all relevant state institutions in Serbia.
We’re open
to creating and introducing new ways of approaching our work with our target groups.
We strive for transparency both within and outside of our organization, in terms of activities, results and
financial information.
We take
full responsibility for our work with persons who have reported violence and/or discrimination
to us (we protect personal data and do our best to respond to the needs of the people who have
contacted us).
Miloš Kovačević
He graduated and mastered philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. From 2010 to 2014, as an activist of the Youth Group of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, he promoted LGBTQ human rights through alternative media and culture. From 2015 to 2016, he worked at the Palilula Red Cross as a program coordinator. He is the author of several scientific papers in political philosophy, LGBTQ texts and translations from the field of bioethics and feminism.
Aleksandar Savić
PR manager, activist, drag performer and Aunt. He has been involved in activism since 2010 in various ways. In 2013, he joined the Youth Group of the Helsinki Committee as a member, and later as its coordinator. He is one of the founders of Da se zna and in the team he is mostly in charge of creativity and eradicating delays.
Nikola Planojević
He holds a degree in psychology from South Bank University in London and is a candidate for a Master’s degree in Human Rights from the University of Vienna. He has been active since the age of 16, starting as a fighter for the rights of high school students, later as a youth worker in the E8 Center team, and currently advocating for the rights and dignified lives of people who suffer various forms of violence. Part “To be known!” team since September 2019.
Ana Petrović
In media activism since 2009, in To be known! team from 2020. Producer, activist, advocate, queer woman and mother of one girl. In addition to advocating for social change, procedures and laws, the team advocates for the right to occasional delays.
Matija Stefanović
He was born in 1997, graduated from Valjevo High School, and is currently studying Serbian literature and language at the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade.
He got into activism by accident and, without the intention of staying long, started working at the Pride Info Center, but still stayed for almost a year, after which, in November 2021, he became a member of the Da se zna! team.
Matija is a transgender man, on his YouTube channel (Horrible Steff) he documents his transition and talks about being transgender and his experiences with gender.
He makes origami, loves Lord of the Rings, Vikings and Norse mythology and writes an epic fantasy book.
The Board of Directors has three members, one of whom is a member of the Association, and two members are external. External members may not be members of the Association, nor employed or employed on any basis in the Association, nor may they be employed and engaged in any other way in the work of the association whose the goals are the same or similar to the goals of the Association, nor can they be members of the Assembly and / or the governing bodies of such an association.
Aurelija Đan
Gender Equality Consultant, Researcher and Psychologist. She graduated in psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad and received a master’s degree in gender studies at the Central European University in Budapest. She was part of the research team of the Belgrade Center for Security Policy from September 2012 to November 2016. Since then, she has worked as an independent consultant on gender equality and security issues for various marginalized groups. She is engaged by a large number of local and international organizations in Serbia and the region (UN Women, UNICEF, Medicins du Munde, Kvinna till Kvinna). She also upgrades her professional experience as a psychotherapist under supervision in the field of gestalt psychotherapy, where she focuses on therapeutic work with the LGBTQ population.
Miloš Kovačević
He graduated and mastered philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. From 2010 to 2014, as an activist of the Youth Group of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, he promoted LGBTQ human rights through alternative media and culture. From 2015 to 2016, he worked at the Palilula Red Cross as a program coordinator. He is the author of several scientific papers in political philosophy, LGBTQ texts and translations from the field of bioethics and feminism.
The Supervisory Board controls the financial operations of the Association and informs the Management Board and the Assembly about the observed irregularities, without delay. The Supervisory Board has 2 members elected by the Assembly. Members of the Supervisory Board may not be members of the Association, members of the Board of Directors, the Executive Director or employees or otherwise engaged in the Association.
The term of office of the members of the Supervisory Board is four years and they can be re-elected. The Supervisory Board submits a report on its work at the session of the Assembly, at the request of the members of the Assembly or on its own initiative. The Supervisory Board meets and compiles a report on the financial operations of the Association at least once a year and submits it to the Assembly at its regular session.
Bojan Cvetanović
He graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Nis, majoring in Accounting, Auditing and Financial Management. Since 2015, he has been working as an office manager at the Wikimedia Association of Serbia, where he performs administrative and financial affairs. He has extensive experience in sales and practice in the finance and accounting department of the auditing firm Ernst & Young. The holder of the project Wiki loves pride for Serbia and advocates for increasing the presence of articles about women and minority groups on Wikipedia.
Jelena Stević
A human rights activist with a soul in New York and a body in Belgrade. Jelena Stević has significant experience in the civil sector. She has been employed in Civic Initiatives since 2003, and is currently in the position of CFO. She has worked on diversity promotion programs, civic education, and NGO management. She feels most comfortable when she is surrounded by Excel spreadsheets and when she works with citizens’ associations in Serbia to raise their capacities in managing finances.
Threats, interceptions, intimidation, attacks and inappropriate comments directed at LGBT + people are still part of everyday life in Serbia. In addition to the adopted legislative and strategic framework, their implementation is deficient, while adequate reactions of the competent institutions to attacks motivated by homophobia and transphobia are often lacking.
All relevant research for Serbia indicates a general tendency not to report criminal acts arising from homophobia and transphobia, while the system of recording such acts is only sporadic and non-transparent.
In order to record and prosecute attacks on LGBT + people in accordance with the law, as well as to empower the LGBT + community and encourage them to report these cases in March, we founded the association To Know!
Every illegal incident we record is anonymous and safely stored in our protected database, in accordance with the interests of the shippers. Based on documented cases, we issue an annual report on illegal incidents, in which we systematically analyze the received cases – where they occur most often, who is most exposed to violence and discrimination, how the institutions and the police reacted in these cases, etc.
To be clear! seeks to strengthen the queer community and individuals in order to better understand their rights and demand their full realization before state institutions.
We continuously encourage state institutions to improve practices in the field of social and legal protection of queer persons in order to bring these practices in line with international standards of respect for human rights. We achieve this by monitoring illegal actions motivated by homophobia and transphobia, advocating for institutions, responding to community needs by providing free legal and psychological support and capacity building through education programs, both ourselves and other civil society organizations, decision makers, community queens and beyond. the public.
Serbia is a country of equal rights and opportunities, in which a free and dignified life is guaranteed to all queer citizens.
- Antifascism
- Equality
- Intersectionality
- Solidarity
- Courage
- Cooperation
- Responsibility
- Fellowship
- Guided by the principles of anti-fascism, we oppose and act against every form of fascism and related ideologies and movements based on the supremacy of one group over another.
- We stand for equal opportunities for the realization of all human rights in the cultural, social, economic and political sense, but also for the equal benefit of the achieved results, regardless of gender identity and / or gender.
We respect the differences within the queer community, especially those at the intersection of marginalized identities. - Despite all the similarities that the survivors of illegal motives motivated by homophobia and transphobia have, we believe that each of them has its own unique needs and deserves special treatment.
- In our work with the transceiver, we consistently adhere to the principle of informed consent, and we put the needs of the transferor in the foreground.
Through various activities, we initiate cooperation with other human rights organizations at the state, regional and international level, as well as with all relevant state bodies in the Republic of Serbia. - As a basis for strengthening the queer movement, we see the association with other queer organizations and organizations that provide support to survivors.
We are investing our efforts in improving the existing cooperation and communication, which is extremely important for the work of the organization, but also the liberation of the queer community. - We promote solidarity with other vulnerable groups, individuals, especially in conditions of oppression, exploitation or any other form of violence and social injustice.
- We nurture openness to create and introduce new approaches in working with our target groups.
- We encourage innovation, creativity and courage, while striving for long-term change for the queer community.
- We base our work on professionalism, responsibility and ethics in our daily work inside and outside the organization.
- We value the creation of space for engagement, reflection and development of competencies central to our work, while treating mistakes as an opportunity for learning and improvement.
- We base our work on honesty, transparency and building trust with those who support us and those who need support. In addition to external transparency, we also nurture internal transparency.
- Da se zna! is based on the principle of self-management, and all our members of the working team have equal decision-making power.