Since its establishment in 1995, the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights has paid a particular respect to publishing. With human rights education as our main activity, the lack of human rights literature available in Serbian at the time of our establishment made it clear that publishing was necessary for education. In its first few years of work, the Centre published collections of international documents in Serbian and in English, which are used in the Centre’s seminars.

As our educational role developed, the structure of program participants changed as more lawyers, judges, advisors, and professional court and prosecution associates began to participate in our seminars. This development lead the Centre to begin translating and publishing the most important judgments by the European Court of Human Rights and decisions by the UN treaty bodies. We considered it important that as many professionals as possible become acquainted with the practice of international judicial and quasi-judicial organs in order to bring our own courts and state organs in line with international standards.

Since 1995, the Centre has organised schools for human rights with the goal equipping as many students and activists as possible with an understanding of human rights. Since the literature was not available in Serbian, the Centre started by publishing textbooks on international law and human rights. We also published translations of foreign authors and academic books that make up necessary human rights literature for post-graduate and professional studies. 

Since 1998, we have published annual reports on the state of human rights in Serbia, which are especially important to the Centre’s associates who regularly follow the alignment of Serbian national legislation and government practice with international standards. The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights has published several editions.