Donor: The Balkan Trust for Democracy
Duration of the project: September 2008 – October 2009

This project was linked to the endeavors of the Belgrade Centre aiming at re-training of judges and other legal professionals in Serbia and the region, which is one of the main activities of the Centre and prerequisite for establishing the rule of law in the country. The quality of the Court’s judgments, however, depends not only on the abilities of the judges of the Court, but also on the professional legal staff which assists them in their work. The legal officers working in the Court provide the backbone of its operation, as they review each case submitted to the Court before it comes to the judges, and as they assist the judges in legal research and the drafting of all of the Court’s judgments and orders. (more…)

Donor: Norwegian People’s Aid NPA

Duration of the project: June 2008 – March 2009

This was the last stage of the project that was conducted from 2002 in cooperation with Legalis – The Association for the advancement of justice based on the principles of human rights from Croatia, The Human Rights Centre of the University in Sarajevo from Bosnia and Herzegovina, FORUM – Centre for Strategic Research and Documentation, from Macedonia and Human Rights Action, from Montenegro. In this stage 150 legal professionals (judges, lawyers, prosecutors) and human rights activists had been trained in  international human rights standards. At the same time this was good opportunity for human rights experts from SEE and Norway to exchange competence and best practices. Supreme and Constitutional Courts’ Judges from Norway and SEE meet in order to improve implementation of European Court for Human Rights decisions. (more…)

Donor: Network of European Foundation

Duration of the project: September 2008 – February 2009

The main objective of this project was to research the national environmental legislation framework, to compare it with European standards (Acquis Communitaire) and to make the assessment of the coherence (mutual compliance) of the Serbian standards and work of the state bodies implementing the valid legislation regulating environmental issues. In 2008 authorities in Serbia had been working on the national strategy for environmental protection with which all strategies related to individual issues would be harmonized. On the other hand it was important to define strategic goals in the environmental field, to harmonize legislation with international standards and to elaborate programs and actions plans for their implementation in different environmental fields. (more…)

Donor: UNIFEM

Duration of the project: August 2008 – February 2009

Belgrade Centre decided to conduct this project believing that the significance of this problem does not correspond to the way in which it is being addressed by Serbian judicial institutions and public. Serbia has ratified major International Conventions important for protecting women labour right. Although domestic legislation has guaranties on gender equality on work and gives protection in the cases of violation of human rights, in 2008 Serbia still lacked Law against abuse on work and Law on gender equality. There are new state institutions such as an Ombudsman Deputy for gender equality and person with disability and Department of Gender Equality Ministry of Labor and Social Protection  that ought to help in women rights protection in the future. (more…)

Donor: British Embassy Belgrade

Duration of the project: July – September 2008

The purpose of the EU Online project was alleviating ignorance and misunderstanding of the EU, informing young people about the benefits of EU membership and potentially reducing emerging anti-European attitudes. BCHR has opened a special portal on its web page containing basic information about the EU (entitled “EU in 800 words”). Based on the evaluations from the EU related seminars and public debates held in many high schools in Serbia, Centre has chosen  to offer brief articles about the history of EU integration, institutions, way of functioning, etc. (more…)

Donor: Swiss Embassy

Duration of the project: January – December 2008

This Report was the eleventh one produced by the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights. The purpose of this Report is to present and assess the constitutional and legal provisions related to human rights. All international documents binding on the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro remain binding on Serbia, as its legal successor. These include treaties by which the state has committed itself to respecting and ensuring the respect for human rights. This is why the analysis focused on establishing the extent to which the local legislation is in conformity with the standards in the two most important universal international treaties adopted by the United Nations and ratified by the state – the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. When Serbia and Montenegro joined the Council of Europe, Serbia assumed the obligation to conform its legislation to the European Convention on Human and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. (more…)