Human Rights, Development and the Protection System in

Serbia

Office of the Resident Coordinator in Serbia

Human Rights in Serbia after 2000

• General impression that situation is improving

• Reports for 2007 state that situation with both CP rights and ESC rights has progressed

• With development of democratic values, human rights are getting their place

However…

• One of the first statements of the Serbian Ombudsman, Sasa Jankovic is that the culture of human rights in Serbia is not developed

• Shocking report of the MRDI regarding the situation in mental health care institutions

• Significant deterioration of the situation of the HRD in only 2 days after February 17th 2008

However…

• Embassies on fire

• Attacks on Albanian minorities in Vojvodina (Sombor, Novi Sad)

• Attempted attack on the B92 and threats to B92 staff and editors

• Attacks on NGOs (LINGVA Kraljevo, HLC Belgrade…) and those involved in transitional justice

Poverty

• One of the gravest problems in Serbia• Second report in the implementation of PRSP

states that nearly 9% of the population lives with less than 6000 RSD a month (80E)

• Population in the interior of the country is three times poorer than the one living in Belgrade

• South Serbia is the poorest region• Roma are the ethnic group suffering from

poverty the most

Unemployment

• National Employment Service states that there are 913,000 unemployed in Serbia, 54% of which are women

• Vulnerable groups affected more (Roma, PWD)

• World Bank country brief – unemployment rate 20.9%

• UNDP 2004: General population 19%; Refugees and IDPs 32%; Roma 39%

Situation of Roma

• Roma community is still suffering severe exclusion and discrimination

• Living in conditions of extreme poverty with limited access to education and healthcare

• Substandard living conditions (unhygienic settlements)

• Higher mortality rate• Targets of numerous incidents of violence,

verbal and physical harassment

Situation of Roma

• Difficulties in obtaining personal documents (access to the social security system, education, employment etc)

• Working in waste collection – unregulated area (no health, social or pension insurance…)

Women

• Concern: violence against women, high level of domestic violence persists

• Social status of women: inferior to men

• Women discriminated in the labor market / according to the Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, women’s average wages are 11% lower than that of men

Children

• Educational system provides 9 years of mandatory and free schooling

• However, elementary education remains a problem for Roma and for poor populations – around 1/3 of Roma children completes primary education

• Some Roma children are placed in schools for mentally disabled children because of their language difficulties

Children

• Children from socially vulnerable groups suffer discrimination and exclusion

• Domestic violence against children remains a problem

• Child marriage is still present, especially within Roma community, so is child labor

People with disabilities

• Law on prohibition of discrimination of PWD adopted, implementation disputable

• 2007-2015 Strategy for improving conditions of the PWD adopted

• Inclusive education still not possible in Serbia• Only 13% of PWD are employed, 70% lives in

poverty• Architectonic barriers remain to be a problem, as

well as access to public transportation (voting)• MRDI – Torment not Treatment

Minorities

• COM 2007 states that the number of ethnically motivated incidents has decreased. This report was developed prior to the events following the February 17th 2008

• Recorded attacks against Albanian minority in Vojvodina (owners of bakeries, one bakery set on fire…)

Minorities

• Legislative amendments have allowed better representation of minorities in the parliament

• There is a Republican Council for Minorities but it has not met since 2006

• Tensions in south Serbia persist

Refugees and IDPs

• 104,000 refugees and 208,000 IDPs living in difficult socio-economic situation

Readmission

• CoE estimates 60,000-100,000 but the number may be much higher

Human Rights Defenders

• Human Rights Defenders are often subject of harassment, threats…

• Some media led campaigns aimed at demonizing and discrediting human rights activists (e.g. Natasa, the women that does not exist, V. Novosti)

• Several attacks reported, NGOs state that officials are slow to investigate or prosecute these threats

• Overall public image of the human rights defenders remains negative, identified as traitors…

Journalists

• Continue to face threats, even murder attempts (Dejan Anastasijevic)

• Assassinators of Slavko Curuvija not identified yet

• Defamation is not de-criminalized, which imposes additional pressure on journalists (Bodrozic)

UN Human Rights System

• Party to almost all UN Human Rights Treaties (ratifications pending for CMW, CPD and CED)

• Report under CERD overdue

• CRC and CAT reviews in 2008

• ICCPR report to be submitted in 2008 (?)

• Universal Periodic Review – in December 2008

Constitution/al Court/Appeal

• Better catalogue of human rights• Constitutional appeal for the first time in

Serbia (existed on Federal level) – specific legal remedy against individuals, state bodies or organizations exercising public authority and violating or denying rights guaranteed by Constitution, if other legal remedies are exhausted or do not exist

• Constitutional court: 10 out of 15 judges appointed, significant backlog, president Bosa Nenadic

Request for the protection of legality

• Filed by the Republican Public Prosecutor to the Supreme Court, if a final court decision is in violation of the law

• According to the new Criminal Procedure Code, individual can appeal to the Supreme Court if Prosecutor decides not to file the request despite the facts

• (will have to be exhausted prior to Constitutional appeal or a submission to international body such as ECtHR)

Ombudsman

• Ombudsman on three levels:– State level – Sasa Jankovic (mid 2007)– Province level – Petar Teofilovic for Vojvodina

(2003)– Local (municipality level)

• It took 199 years for the Ombudsman idea to travel from Sweden to Serbia

Commissioner for Information of Public Importance

• Law on access to information of public importance delivered in 2004

• Free access to information has to be further improved… Government has not sufficiently acted on the Commissioners recommendations (COM 2007)

Within the Government

• Agency for Human and Minority Rights Continues to operate within the Government of Serbia (one of the departments is dealing exclusively with Roma issues)

• Sector for Gender Equality also established within the Government of Serbia

Civil Society

• Human Rights NGOs

• Media

Enforcement of decisions of International Bodies

• CAT and HRC decisions not implemented / Serbian legislation needs to be amended in this regard (BGCHR 2007) - Bodrozic

• ECtHR delivered six judgments finding that Serbia has violated at least one article of the ECHR / first ruling was fully enforced by Serbia (COM 2007)

Still missing

• Anti-Discrimination Law

• Law on Associations

• Law on Gender Equality

• Human Rights Strategy/Policy

• Consistent strategy against dissemination of hatred and hate speech

• etc