Duration: May 2022 – May 2025
Donor: The German Agency for International Cooperation – GIZ
About the project: Administrative law covers a wide range of different areas such as construction, traffic, public procurement, property restitution, pensions, taxes and others. Administrative acts have a great impact on citizens’ daily life, which is why it is important that citizens have the right to appeal against administrative acts that affect their rights or obligations. The competence of the Administrative Court is very important for entire state system to function, because the Administrative Court exercises judicial control over the legality of acts of the executive power. Guaranteeing judicial control of administrative acts by an impartial, efficient and independent court is essential for the protection of human rights and the rule of law.
The main reason that affects the efficiency of the work of the Administrative Court, excluding the lack of judges and insufficient quality work of administrative bodies, is that, starting from 2010, every year a number of new laws have been passed regulating completely new administrative areas. Due to the large inflow of new cases and jurisdiction expansion, the efficiency of the Administrative Court is the lowest comparing to all courts in the Republic of Serbia.
The project “Towards more efficient administrative justice in Serbia” aims to improve the efficiency of the administrative justice sector in order to provide better access to justice for the citizens of the Republic of Serbia. Improving the work of the first-instance authorities in the administrative procedure, raising the awareness of citizens about the possibility of using their rights during the administrative procedure for its successful conclusion resulting with reduction of administrative disputes, would lead to achieving the goal.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM, in cooperation with the German International Cooperation Organization (GIZ) has been implementing the project “Towards more efficient administrative justice in Serbia”. The project is a part of the program of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Serbia and GIZ “Support to the Ministry of Justice in the reform of the administrative judiciary”, which aims to strengthen the capacity of the Administrative Court.
