‘In the year since the last commemoration of International Human Rights Day, the Ministry of Justice has been dedicated to improving the human rights legal framework, especially with regard to access to justice, personal data protection, the development of a new strategic framework and assistance to victims', State Secretary of the Ministry of Justice Mr Radomir Ilić stated at a conference held on 10 December on the occasion of the International Human Rights Day.
‘Having an efficient and quality legal system means little if a large portion of the public has no access to justice. Needless to say, there is a great pride in the adoption of the Free Legal Aid Act which entered into force on 1 October 2019’, Mr Ilić added, stressing the fact that the citizens had been waiting on the statute for over 10 years. He explained that the Act defined three groups of free legal aid beneficiaries: 1) people on social welfare and receiving child support, 2) individuals who, if they were to pay for legal assistance personally, would have no choice but to request and be on social welfare, 3) vulnerable groups of the population, such as children, victims of domestic violence, asylum-seekers, refugees, persons with disabilities, victims of human trafficking.
Mr Ilić noted that the judiciary was the last line of defence for human rights. He said that because going to the judicial organs for help was often the only way to exercise and protect one’s rights, great efforts were being made towards the development and the advancement of the judiciary. As an example of such efforts, he announced that that the new National Judicial Reform Strategy 2019−2024 would continue the work on strengthening the independence of courts and prosecutors, raising the integrity of those holding judicial office, ensuring the respect of ethical principles, and increasing the justice system accountability, quality and efficiency – all of which should increase the level of citizens’ trust in the judiciary.
Mr Ilić said that the Universal Declaration on Human Rights had not lost its importance since its adoption 71 year ago, and that, rather, all the values contained in the first article were the starting and the final reference point for all measures taken to improve the living conditions for everyone. As such – he added −, their full respect could only be achieved through cooperation, compromise and a single objective.
To that end, Mr Ilić noted that the Ministry of Justice had made a strategic and a responsible approach to ensuring a wide reform of the ways in which victims and witnesses of crimes exercised their rights. This resulted in an open process of conducting consultations with all the relevant government authorities and civil society organisations, and a draft proposal of the National Strategy on the Rights of Victims and Witnesses of Crimes in the Republic of Serbia 2019−2025 and an Action Plan for its implementation; the proposed draft having three basic objectives: 1) establishing a national network of support services, 2) improving the protection of victims and witnesses of crimes, and 3) raising awareness about the rights of the victims and witnesses of crimes.
‘For years, the Ministry of Justice has been dedicated to preventing domestic violence and providing support in cases where violence had unfortunately occurred already. Back in 2016, Serbia incorporated new criminal offenses into its Criminal Code in accordance with the Istanbul Convention, i.e. persecution or stalking, sexual harassment, forced marriage and female genital mutilation. By applying the amended Criminal Code, the courts sentenced 140 persons on accounts of sexual harassment and persecution between 1 June 2017 and the end of October 2019’, Mr Ilić stressed. He added that international legal cooperation, the sharing of knowledge and experience in area of human rights was always of tremendous help to any country in advancing and upholding the rule of law.
‘Despite every progress made to date, the country has yet to tackle the many challenges of every point on the broad spectrum of the human rights agenda. I believe that those challenges will be overcome if all the relevant institutions work together and a close cooperation with civil society organisations is maintained. Human rights are for every individual which makes it everyone’s responsibility to protect and uphold them’, Mr Ilić concluded.
The name of the conference was You are Right, and its main organiser was the Office for Human and Minority Rights. Many important panellists spoke at the conference, such as Director of the Office for Human and Minority Rights Ms Suzana Paunović, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Serbia Mr Sem Fabrizi, Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia Mr Andrea Orizio, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Belgrade Mr Tobias Flessenkemper, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection Mr Milan Marinović, Ombudsman of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina Mr Zoran Pavlović, and the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Serbia Ms Françoise Jacob.