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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia makes progress in judiciary, protection of human rights

Belgrade, 17 September 2014

Minister of Justice Nikola Selakovic met late yesterday with a delegation of the Council of Europe, led by Deputy Director for Political Cooperation Daniil Khoshabo, with whom he discussed the progress of Serbia in the field of human rights.

Selakovic pointed out that the conclusions made by the European Commission, as part of the report on screening for Chapter 23, state that Serbia has a good legislative framework when it comes to human and minority rights, but that their consistent application is lacking.

With regard to this, the Minister of Justice said that in the coming period Serbia will work on specific strategies and action plans, which will be directed precisely to the strengthening of implementation of existing laws and regulations.

During the meeting, Selakovic stated that in order to strengthen human rights, amendments to the Penal Code have been made – defamation has been decriminalised and stricter punishment for hate crimes imposed.

On the other hand, a draft law on the protection of whistleblowers has been completed, which will soon be forwarded to the Serbian government for adoption.

The Minister added that the final version of the Draft law on protection to the right to trial within a reasonable time is being prepared, which aims to give citizens an efficient access to justice and to enable them to exercise their rights within reasonable time.

Speaking about the situation in Serbian prisons, Selakovic said that the current situation is much better than in 2012.

Back then, more than 11,500 convicts were accommodated in the facilities with the capacity of up to 7,500 places, whereas today after a long time there are less than 10,000 inmates in the facilities with the capacity of over 9,000 places, the Minister of Justice said.

He underlined that such situation is the result of the construction of new and reconstruction of existing facilities over the past two years, but also of wider application of alternative sanctions to a large degree. In this manner, the level of human rights has been raised to a higher level, the Minister concluded.

Representatives of the Council of Europe pointed out that the progress that Serbia has made in the field of justice and respect for human rights is visible and expressed additional interest in the Draft action plan for negotiations on Chapter 23, reads the statement by the Ministry of Justice.