Project: Litigation of Cases related to Human Rights and Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Duration: March 2014 – December 2014
Donor: The project is supported by Civil Rights Defenders.
About the project: The project aims to address the need of citizens and human rights NGOs for free and professional legal aid in cases of discrimination and HR violation reported to them and in cases against HR Defenders. Through court litigation of 10-15 cases the project tested the mechanisms provided by Serbian legislation and in the set of laws on discrimination in specific strategic litigation of court cases and thus raised awareness of human rights violations of selected vulnerable groups: Roma, persons with disabilities, LGBT, women, HIV positive, minorities.
YUCOM’s Legal Aid Team conducted permanent consultation with HR NGOs and consultative meetings. Under established methodology and helped by call centre YUCOM identified clients for strategic litigation, lead cases before Serbian courts and international bodies (ECHR or UN bodies) and maintained data base of cases. YUCOM also supported citizens in realising their right to know, by supporting usage of Law on Free Access to Information and other relevant legislation.
The promotion of the achievements has been conducted through constant media campaign and by issuing Early Warning and case studies.
This is achieved through the following activities:
1.Consultation with human rights NGOs
2.Identification of clients for strategic litigation
3.Developing early warning systems and database
4.Organizing consultative meetings
5.Strategic litigation before the courts
6.Exploring the mechanisms of protection of human rights and their effectiveness and promotion of results of this study
7.Organization of three press conference, including the final, which was attended by representatives of relevant institutions, NGOs, the media and interested individuals, which the results of the conducted project were presented
8.Advocating for the implementation of the recommendations identified on the basis of a case study of the relevant institutions
The annual report will be available upon completion of the project.
