We hereby express our dissatisfaction with the lack of reforms that the Government of Serbia…
The citizens of Serbia have gone through a state of emergency which has brought with it controversy over the constitutionality of the introduced measures and human rights violations. Elections followed, and judicial reform has not yet been implemented, as noted by the European Commission in a negative context in its latest progress report. In the new edition of the EWB Screening, we talked about this with the president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, Katarina Golubović.
“Human Rights and COVID-19” presents an analysis of changes in the legal framework during the COVID-19 epidemic and their impact on exercising human rights. Starting from the principle of the rule of law, the analysis shows the decision making manner which limits human rights, control of the consequences of new regulations in practice, with a systematic presentation of the rights that have suffered the most formal restrictions (freedom of assembly, freedom of movement, right to fair trial, right to health care and freedom of expression). The analysis also shows the limitations of other rights, such as freedom of religion and the right to personal and family life, which have arisen as an indirect consequence of the undertaken measures.
Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights-YUCOM issued a statement on Nov. 5, announcing the launching of a platform entitled “In Solidarity for the Rights of All,” which is to register all attacks and pressure on organizations and individuals in Serbia who, one way or another, defend human rights.
Katarina Golubović, President of YUCOM, pointed out that “the strength of the non-governmental sector is that it can listen to the needs of citizens and advise them, and later these problems of citizens are solved through public policies.” For many years now, NGOs have been participating in this way in building policies and institutions based on the needs of citizens, and we are on the list of the state as associates who are the voice of citizens.
We express our deep concern at the detention of lawyers Ilya Salei and Maksim Znak on September 9, 2020, in Belarus, in a criminal case which is undeniably politically motivated. We consider this to be a gross violation of professional rights and privileges and improper interference with their professional legal activities and with their rights to express professional opinions, as established by international legal standards.
Not much time has passed according to the calendar since February 2019, when we presented our last annual report. That is just over 450 days. According to measuring of time by YUCOM, that includes 21 printed publications, 9 of which printed in 39,000 copies, 419,405 citizens reached by our text “What does the introduction of a state of emergency mean for the people in Serbia?”, strengthening of our team by 2 new lawyers, who, together with the rest of our legal staff have provided legal advice and information to citizens in 995 instances.
What is the importance of civil society?
How does civil society participate in the policy-making process?
What is our contribution to promoting the rule of law and protecting human rights?
These are just some of the questions you can find answers to in the video messages of the representatives of the domestic and international public.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights (Yucom) said in a report released on Tuesday that Serbian citizens over the age of 65 were discriminated during the state of emergency imposed at the start of coronavirus pandemic.
The pandemic of virus COVID-19 is one of the biggest global pandemics in the modern times, and based on the data of the World Health Organization, until July 1, 2020, there were 10,321,689 infected individuals, and 507,435 persons were deceased.
This report presents the findings of the series of the activities recognized as necessary by the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights in the response to the crisis caused by the epidemic of virus COVID – 19.