The Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights YUCOM organized the conference “Challenges of Integrating the Judiciary in Kosovo – The Effects of the Agreement between Belgrade and Pristina on Access to Justice” with the aim of presenting the publication “Integration of the Judiciary in the Context of Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and the EU Accession Process”. The publication has presented a unique overview of the implementation and effects of the Justice Agreement reached within the Brussels dialogue, as well as the fulfillment of all related activities that Serbia has undertaken in the process of accession to the European Union, through Chapters 23 and 35. The publication is the result of the project “Towards Stronger Judiciary through Citizens’ Monitoring” which has been implemented with the support of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Belgrade and the Balkan Trust for Democracy.

Marija Maljan and Momcilo Zivadinovic from Lawyers Committee for Human Rights YUCOM and Bogdan Krasic from Belgrade Center for Human Rights are taking part in the final DRIM conference in Zagreb, which gathered representatives of institutions and organizations from 8 countries of the Danube region: Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Serbia, Slovenia and Slovakia.

Developed, democratic countries, where media freedom exists, don’t have media strategies. The fact that there are problems in Serbia today when it comes to introducing the Media strategy also speaks to the fact that a big change is necessary, the President of the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, Katarina Golubovic, pointed out.

On February 18, 2019, with the support of the Embassy of Canada in Belgrade, the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM organized a lecture on gender-based and domestic violence, sexual abuse and human trafficking. The lecture was delivered by Dr. Maryanne Pearce, Strategic Advisor to the Assistant Commissioner, Reconciliation and MMIWG Inquiry Royal Canadian Mounted Police – department that deals with the investigation of missing and killed indigenous women.

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.