The singer Seka Aleksic recently enthralled all of Serbia after she responded to the story of the Roma girl from Vrbas who suffered violence from her peers and sent a strong message about this important social issue.

Namely, the students from the school where she teaches gave a girl of Roma origin a copper wire with the comment: "Yours must be collecting copper, so let's contribute."

In addition, the girl was left without an escort for graduation, and after this story reached the public, Seka Aleksic announced that she will be this girl's escort at the graduation dinner.

Seka Aleksic has now fulfilled his promise. She posted videos from Vrbas on her Twitter where she was welcomed by the family of a girl who, due to discrimination by her peers, was left without an escort for the prom night.

The graduate's family members were delighted by Seka's presence, and when the singer appeared at the graduation as the girl's chaperone, everyone was delighted by the gesture.

Let's remind, when the media reported the news that the students from the eighth grade of O.Sh. "Petar Petrović Njegoš" from Vrbas was "gifted" a copper wire by her peers, and the boy who was supposed to be an escort "refused", reported Seka. "I'm going to prom with her!" Where is that girl," the singer wrote on Twitter at the time, and the action was supported by many public figures, who also said they wanted to go to a small prom in Vrbas.

Link: https://nova.rs/zabava/showbiz/seka-aleksic-ispunila-obecanje-stigla-u-vrbas-na-malu-maturu-devojcice-koja-je-trpela-vrsnjacko-nasilje/?ref=fbnova&fbclid=IwAR1cmLy3LA4nbhsygAcaCFMgBOy-pAwrzCl1O4FHxt7EwxMKjNJqqMuOwO8

The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights strongly condemns the case of writing offensive graffiti with swastikas and inscriptions "Gyupci", written with black spray on houses of the Roma population on Debarska street in Bitola. This is another case of a hate crime, with a message calling for violence against the Roma ethnic community.

Starting from the aspiration to build coexistence, tolerance and mutual respect regardless of national, ethnic, religious or any other affiliation, we request the competent institutions, above all the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor's Office, to thoroughly investigate the case, to find the perpetrators, who should be held accountable for this act.

The Helsinki Committee expects the Ministry of the Interior and the Public Prosecutor's Office to properly qualify this act as a hate crime. For our part, we will file a criminal complaint and in the future we will follow all the activities that are undertaken in connection with the case.

In the past years, the Helsinki Committee has on several occasions warned about the presence of hate speech towards the Roma community in the Municipality of Bitola and the need to take concrete steps to increase the awareness among citizens of inter-ethnic, inter-religious and inter-cultural tolerance and coexistence.

The appropriate reaction from the institutions in such moments is extremely important, because failure to provide effective protection to the victims of hate speech and acts can result in discouraging the victims from seeking protection and encouraging the perpetrators to repeat the crime.

Racial profiling of the Roma remains the key factor that prevents equal access to goods and services and reinforces their marginalized status in society. Precisely because of all this, the Helsinki Human Rights Committee believes that real improvements are possible only through a significant change in the attitude of the state authorities towards this community.

Link: https://mhc.org.mk/news/kukastite-krstovi-vrz-kukite-na-romite-e-zlostorstvo-od-omraza/?fbclid=IwAR1RUTJnjdcy0lmtn6_M65equdLR6yk3no9niJqVCRAw581ysVbLbmNu2Xs