The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights  YUCOM organized a one-day workshop on May 25th 2015 for teachers and students at the Economic-trading School in Novi Pazar.

The workshop is organized as part of the “Equal Rights in Serbia’s Education System” project, which is financed by the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The project received full support from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development.

Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM, with all due respect for the Ministry of Interior’s call for citizens of the Republic of Serbia to decommission of weapons, expresses concerns about the way in which this Ministry has organized the action.

Is the Serbian government being controlled by independent institutions? To what extent can one criticize the work of the PM, the President and other state officials without being labeled as a “foreign mercenary”? Why do the bearers of executive power perceive all criticism of their work as an attack on the state? These were some of the questions which were discussed Wednesday night at a debate in Belgrade held in the House of Culture where reporters, NGO activists and political analysts expressed their views.

The Representative of the Delegation of the EU in Serbia, Yolanda San Hose, stated today that Serbia has made many steps in the fight against discrimination in order to achieve European standards but has also pointed out that the implementation of the laws is more important then just their passing in Parliament and that Serbia can count on EU’s support.

In the words of Milan Antonijevic, the director of the Lawyer’s Committee for Human Rights, “the current biggest problem in the judiciary is that we don’t have a judiciary.”

“No trials have been held for several months and I don’t see anyone working on a plan of what to do when the judiciary starts working again after the lawyers’ strike comes to an end. We must then see an extraordinarily active prosecutor’s office and an extraordinarily active judiciary in order to make up for lost time. In my opinion, the Ministry must come forth with a clear plan on how this is going to unfold,” Antonijevic points out.