“Serbia has executed 90% of judgements by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), and the passing of the proposed Establishing the Facts about the Status of New-borns Suspected to Have Gone Missing from Hospital Maternity Wards in the Republic of Serbia Bill (the so-called the Missing Babies Act) would in effect be the execution of the Zorica Jovanović v. Serbia judgement“, representatives of the ECHR said in today’s meeting with Justice Minister Nela Kuburović.
The Justice Minister noted that the proposed Bill had already entered the parliamentary procedure and that it is expected to be presented to the parliamentarians during the first regular session. The Minister explained that the Bill has received positive reviews from the Council of Europe (CoE), that it included certain YUCOM recommendations, and that the text itself was prepared by a working group consisting of representatives of the relevant institutions and parents’ associations.
ECHR representatives emphasised that the passing of the Bill would send a positive signal to the CoE Committee of Ministers that Serbia was respecting the CoE decisions. They added that in many cases, Serbia had taken significant steps in executing the ECHR judgements, and invited it to do so again with the said Bill.
It was stated in the meeting that the CoE Committee of Ministers had positively assessed the content of the Bill and, in its last decisions, invited the competent state authorities in Serbia to urgently adopt the Act (pass the Bill). In response, the Minister said there was unequivocal political support to getting the Act adopted.
The ECHR Delegation was headed by Director of the CoE Human Rights Directorate Christophe Poirel.