On January 24, 2019, YUCOM organized a conference “DRIM Transnational Workshop” at the Hotel Moskva in Belgrade, where representatives of organizations and institutions from 8 countries of the region, who, for the past two years, have been a part of the “Danube Region Information Platform for the Economic Integration of Migrants (DRIM)”, supported by the INTERREG Danube Transnational Programme and the European Union.

Sonja Toskovic from BCHR and Marija Maljan from YUCOM, representatives of HRH Belgrade are attending Annual Coordinator Meeting in Oslo 16-19 December 2018

The human rights week might have passed, but the commitment to human rights – for everyone and everywhere continues.

On 24 October 2018, under the title: Ministry of Justice followed all the recommendations of Venice Commission, the Ministry of Justice in Serbian Government published “New Report of the Venice Commission” and explained that the Members of the Venice Commission, during the Commission’s 116th Plenary Session, discussed the fourth Draft of the Constitutional Amendments of Serbia. 

As noted in the 2017 – 2019 House of Lords Report on the UK and future of the Western Balkans, “Instability in the region is driven by serious and deep-rooted governance challenges” – challenges which have been compounded by the practice of supporting stability over democracy. This has contributed to a rising “stabilitocracy” through which authoritarian governments have consolidated “their patronage networks, ensuring near invincibility at elections in years to come”…

The Director of the Committee of Lawyers for Human Rights, Milan Antonijević, was chosen as one of the three finalists for a prestigious award that is awarded for outstanding contributions in the legal field. This award was established by the International Association of Lawyers (Union Internationale des Avocats), in cooperation with LexisNexis Group.

The Human Rights Council, in its Resolution 33/14 of 29 September 2016, established the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to development. Mr. Saad Alfarargi was appointed Special Rapporteur for a period of three years and took up his functions on 1 May 2017. In September 2017, the UN Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 36/9, which mandated the Special Rapporteur to conduct Regional Consultations

Bearing in mind the importance of the Sofia Summit for the EU as a timely and high level debate within the EU countries as well as the challenges and opportunities that integrations of the Western Balkans bring to the European Union;

Following the Strategy for the Western Balkans of the European Commission that opens the doors for the countries of our surrounding, along with the time frame and clear perspective of finalizing all the EU integration processes in certain countries and speeding the processes in other countries;

Access to Justice in Serbia isn’t guaranteed for poor and marginalized citizens due to fragmentary and poorly developed system of free legal aid. The Law on Free Legal Aid still hasn’t been passed, although Serbia is bind to pass such a law by the Constitution and strategic documents brought in the last ten years.

When we speak about Access to Justice that is guaranteed by the European Convention of Human Rights and the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, the majority of people in Serbia usually isn’t even aware of their rights or doesn’t have enough resources to finance access to justice, especially due to the fact of non existence of such law that would regulate free legal aid as also due to the low standards of life insufficient to enable hiring lawyers or legal advisors.

In democratic societies, the possibility of effective legal protection of violated or endangered rights is a basic condition for the maintenance of Rule of Law. One of the instruments for exercising the right to access to justice and respecting the standards for a fair trial is the right to legal assistance. According to Article 67 of the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia (hereinafter: the Constitution), the right to legal assistance under the conditions specified by law is guaranteed to everyone.