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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia needs donations to bring prisons up to European standards

Belgrade, 3 November 2004

At a press conference in Belgrade Central Prison today, Serbian Deputy Minister of Justice Branislav Bjelica appealed to the donor community to help the Justice Ministry in its efforts to bring the prisons up to European standards, adding that Serbia is obliged to observe international standards and conventions on the treatment of prisoners.

Author: Fonet

The conference on the reform of Serbian prisons, jointly hosted by the OSCE Mission to Serbia-Montenegro and the Serbian Ministry of Justice, gathered several international donors, including the UK Department for International Development (DFID), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and several western Embassies.

They discussed the poor living conditions for inmates in Serbia's prisons, which suffer from overcrowding and poor medical facilities after decades of low investment by the state.

Opening the conference, Deputy Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia and Montenegro, Douglas Wake, praised the current efforts of the Prison Administration to address the urgently needed reforms.

Wake also said that the Mission has already been providing extensive training to prison wardens on prison discipline, the rights of prisoners and administration and that it has been assisting in the drafting of a new Law on Execution of Penal Sanctions which will need the support of international donors.