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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Project for increasing tolerance in secondary schools

Belgrade, 1 August 2008

Serbian Minister for Human and Minority Rights Svetozar Ciplic said today that the Ministry will launch a one-year project for increasing tolerance in secondary schools in Serbia.

In an interview for the news agency Beta, Ciplic said that the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights will seek help from the government’s expert services and NGOs to make the action for increasing tolerance in secondary schools as effective as possible.

Speaking on the Ministry’s plans, he stressed that it is necessary to complete the legal framework for regulating human and minority rights issues, the priority being adoption of the general antidiscrimination law and the law on national minority councils.

Talking about the human and minority rights situation in Serbia, he said that there is no specific system in Serbia for monitoring the realisation of civil, political, social, economic and other rights.

It is impossible to provide a reliable estimate of the human rights situation because of the lack of mechanisms, said Ciplic and added that in order to form such an estimate it is necessary to harmonise the work of municipal and district courts, the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court and the work of all ombudsmen in Serbia.

Regarding national minority councils he said that it is the Ministry’s task to prepare a bill which will regulate the jurisdictions of these councils and the manner of their election.

According to Ciplic, as a form of special minority rights national minority councils are an excellent idea, but their jurisdictions and procedures of election must be regulated by the law in order for them to function.

Ciplic announced that national minority councils will be consulted while drafting the law and the law could reach parliament after the adoption of laws which are already in parliament, for instance those concerning the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU and the energy agreement with Russia.