Sigurnosni aspekti protesta / Protest's Securitiztion

Abstract

On the example of the protest securitization, authors intend to point out the destructive tendencies, which predominantly determine last decade. It is common knowledge that the right to protest is the undisputed basis for democratic processes as one of fundamental rights guaranteed by numerous international conventions and declarations.The heavy influence of 9/11 events, which largely contributed to redefinition of security as priority in relation to freedom, changed essentially the perception of protests. Namely, protests are exposed to the process of securitization, implicating the change in viewing protests - the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association with others was substituted by perception of protests as security threat. Authors find the rationale for this argument in increasingly evident legal restrictions of right to protest in countries around the world and in recent affirmation of police tactic for protest management called “preventive arrest”. Through elaboration of these issues authors’ intents are to warn of the emergence of authoritarian elements in democratic countries that inevitably lead to the distortion of the balance between freedom and security, or the process of deconstruction of security being as primary social need of humans and conditions for survival and existence of the community.