Aleksandar Olenik (, born 1973) is a Serbian politician and a lawyer. A member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

, he heads the European Regions parliamentary group. He is a former president of the

Civic Democratic Forum Civic Democratic Forum ( sr, Грађански демократски форум, Građanski Demokratski forum, GDF) is a liberal political party in Serbia. It was founded in 2019 by former members of the Movement of Free Citizens (PSG). It ha ...

. He also works in the legal team of the ''

Gay Straight Alliance ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

'', an organization that fights for the

LGBT rights in Serbia Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in Serbia face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity are legal in Serbia, and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientatio ...

Biography

He was born in 1973 in

Kikinda Kikinda ( sr-Cyrl, Кикинда, ; hu, Nagykikinda) is a city and the administrative center of the North Banat District in Serbia . The city urban area has 38,069 inhabitants, while the city administrative area has 59,453 inhabitants. The c ...

. He has worked as a lawyer in several domestic and international organizations, such as the

Norwegian Refugee Council The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC, no, Flyktninghjelpen) is a humanitarian, non-governmental organisation that protects the rights of people affected by displacement. This includes refugees and internally displaced persons who are forced to flee ...

, the

Danish Refugee Council Danish Refugee Council (DRC) ( da, Dansk Flygtningehjælp) is a private Danish humanitarian nonprofit organization, founded in 1956. It serves as an umbrella organization for 33 member organizations. Formed after the Second World War in response ...

Mercy Corps Mercy Corps is a global non-governmental, humanitarian aid organization operating in transitional contexts that have undergone, or have been undergoing, various forms of economic, environmental, social and political instabilities. The organizatio ...

and the

Humanitarian Law Center Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) ( sr-Latn, Fond za Humanitarno pravo, sq, Fondi për të Drejtën Humanitare) is a non-governmental organisation with offices in Belgrade, Serbia, and Pristina, Kosovo.

, where he has represented national and religious minorities,

Internally displaced person An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee. A ...

s, refugees and victims of war crimes. He is currently working on similar cases at the Belgrade Center for Minority Rights and the European Roma Rights Center in Budapest. During 2010, he worked at the

United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

in Belgrade as a national consultant in charge of analyzing the application of the criminal code in the part that deals with discrimination. He was a member of the Movement of Free Citizens, in which he had the function of a member of the executive board and the head of the legal team. After the former president of the movement

Saša Janković Saša Janković ( sr-cyr, Саша Јанковић, ; born 27 April 1970) is a Serbian lawyer, journalist, human rights activist and politician who served as the National Ombudsman of the Republic of Serbia between 2007 and 2017. He resigned his ...

retired from politics, he ran for president. Soon after

Sergej Trifunović Sergej Trifunović ( sr-cyr, Сергеј Трифуновић, ; born 2 September 1972) is a Serbian actor, comedian, singer, politician and citizen activist.

was elected to that position. Olenik and some other members left the Movement of Free Citizens in early 2019, and claimed that they did not leave the movement because of Trifunović, but because of the change in politics. He was one of the initiators of the founding of the new political organization

, whose president he became at the founding assembly in March 2019.

Views

Olenik is known for his

anti-clerical Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...

views and his opposition to the

Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches. The majori ...

and advocates for the abolition of religious education in schools in Serbia, as well as for imposing a "luxury tax" for the Church.

References

External links

Civic Democratic Forum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olenik, Aleksandar 1973 births Living people Politicians from Kikinda 21st-century Serbian lawyers Movement of Free Citizens (Serbia) politicians Civic Democratic Forum politicians Serbian people of Ukrainian descent Members of the National Assembly (Serbia)