Serbia is no longer under enhanced supervision exercised by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers (CoM) over the ‘missing babies’ case after the National Assembly of Serbia passed the Establishing the Facts about Status of New-Borns Suspected to Have Disappeared from Maternity Hospitals in the Republic of Serbia Act.
This was noted at a CoM meeting held on 3–5 March 2020 in Strasbourg. The meeting was dedicated to the supervision of the execution of judgements and decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, including the judgment in the Zorica Jovanović v. Serbia case.
On 29 February 2020, Serbian MPs adopted the so-called Missing Babies Act, thereby fulfilling Serbia’s obligation under the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the Zorica Jovanović v. Serbia case (Application no. 21794/09). The CoM expressed its satisfaction that the Act had been adopted and welcomed the efforts on the part of the competent authorities to engage with different civil society organisations in order to find ways and means to address parents’ concerns, including consultations with the parents organised by the Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić. The CoM called on Serbia to take all necessary measures to ensure an efficient implementation of the new fact-finding mechanism and to continue the cooperation with that body towards full and effective execution of the judgment.
The CoM supervises the execution of judgments on the basis of information provided by national authorities, applicants, non-governmental organisations and other interested parties.
The State Secretary of the Ministry of Justice Radomir Ilić participated in the meeting.