On the occasion of 20 June, World Refugee Day, the Belgrade Centre of Human Rights alerts to the vulnerability of the refugee population, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and recalls that Serbian state institutions are under the obligation to extend protection to all refugees under domestic and international law.

UNHCR data show that 79.5 million people in the world have been forced to flee their homes as a result of persecution or conflicts. Children account for 40% of them. Unfortunately, the years-long conflicts and large-scale violations of human rights indicate that major improvements are unlikely in the near future. A total of 12,937 people expressed the intention to seek asylum in Serbia in 2019 but only 35 were granted asylum. Furthermore, the problems of refugees and internally displaced persons from ex-Yugoslavia have not been resolved yet.

To recall, the movement of migrants and asylum seekers during the state of emergency introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic was strictly limited to the centres they were living in. We therefore call on the relevant institutions to provide migrants with unobstructed access to Serbia’s territory in accordance with UNHCR and OHCHR recommendations during the pandemic, whilst respecting all the health measures. The Serbian asylum system still cannot be qualified as efficient given the length of the asylum procedure and non-implementation of the asylum procedure at Belgrade airport Nikola Tesla and the low number of people granted asylum. The refugees’ integration has been gravely undermined by their inability to obtain travel documents and Serbian citizenship.

The BCHR has been endeavouring to improve the status of all refugees in Serbia through its activities involving the provision of legal aid to asylum seekers, strategic litigation before domestic and international bodies, support in integration and advocacy. The BCHR launched an online campaign #let’sstandbyeachother to mark World Refugee Day and raise public awareness of the refugees’ problems and promote solidarity and tolerance to contribute to the equality and life in dignity of all vulnerable groups, including refugees, in Serbia’s society.

World Refugee Day was established under a UN General Assembly Resolution in 2001.

By dismissing as manifestly ill-founded the initiatives to review the constitutionality of the Decision on the State of Emergency of 15 March 2020, the Constitutional Court of Serbia has invalidated the National Assembly’s role in the state of emergency proclamation procedure.

The Serbian Constitution gives the National Assembly the main role during a state of emergency. Under Articles 99, 105, 106, 109 and 200 of the Constitution, the National Assembly shall proclaim a state of emergency and may impose measures derogating from human and minority rights; a disbanded National Assembly shall perform only current or urgent tasks stipulated by law and, in case a state of emergency is proclaimed, it shall regain its full competence until the state of emergency is lifted; and, the National Assembly shall be convoked without notice upon the proclamation of a state of emergency. Pursuant to the Constitution, in the event the decision on the state of emergency is not taken by the National Assembly, the National Assembly shall verify it within 48 hours or as soon  as it is in a position to convene. A decision on the state of emergency not verified by the National Assembly shall cease to be effective upon the end of its first session after the proclamation of the state of emergency. The Serbian Government is under the duty to submit the decrees on measures derogating from human and minority rights, which are co-signed by the Serbian President, for verification by the National Assembly within 48 hours or as soon as the National Assembly is in a position to convene. Otherwise, such measures shall cease to be effective 24 hours after the beginning of the first session of the National Assembly held after the proclamation of the state of emergency. 

The National Assembly Speaker’s notice to the Serbian President and Government of 15 March 2020 that the Assembly was not in a position to meet sufficed for the Constitutional Court to conclude that there was no cause to review the constitutionality of the Decision on the State of Emergency, which was adopted by the Serbian President, Prime Minister and National Assembly Speaker rather than the National Assembly.

The initiatives submitted to the Constitutional Court de facto raised the issue of abuse of the constitutional provision exceptionally providing for the proclamation of a state of emergency by the President, Prime Minister and Speaker in the event the National Assembly cannot meet. The Constitutional Court held that it “had no constitutional or other legal grounds to question the Speaker’s notice that the parliament was unable to meet,” wherefore it did not question, under constitutional law, the Speaker’s power to herself suspend the work of the legislature, without first calling and holding a session of the Collegium[1], obtaining the opinions of the MPs, their caucuses or the parliamentary committees on whether it was possible to hold a session, and to opt for the constitutional exception. It thus comes as no surprise, although it definitely gives rise to concern, that the Constitutional Court qualified the proclamation of the state of emergency by the Serbian President, Prime Minister and parliament Speaker as an alternative rather than a subsidiary procedure.

In its explanation of its decision, the Constitutional Court devoted a lot of space to enumerating and analysing the facts supporting the introduction of the state of emergency (the epidemiological situation in China, Spain, France, Italy, Serbia, the unknowns surrounding COVID-19, etc.). On the other hand, it did not deem relevant to examine the actions (e.g. calling and holding a session of the Collegium, obtaining the opinions of the MPs, their caucuses or the parliamentary committees on whether a session could be held elsewhere, et al) that should have preceded the Speaker’s notice to the Serbian President and Prime Minister that the Assembly could not meet. The Constitutional Court explained that it was unable to assess the Assembly’s organisational capacity to meet without delay in an emergency threatening human life and health.

The invalidation of the parliament’s role also brings into question the constitutionally proclaimed sovereignty vested in the people and exercised through their freely elected representatives. The Constitutional Court apparently does not consider the possibility of one MP (merely “the first among equals”) usurping this sovereignty a relevant constitutional law issue.

To recall, the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights filed three initiatives with the Constitutional Court to review the constitutionality of the Serbian authorities’ state of emergency decisions and their compliance with ratified international treaties. These initiatives are still pending before the Constitutional Court.

[1] The National Assembly Collegium is a body convened by the National Assembly Speaker to coordinate and consult on the work of the National Assembly. The Collegium comprises the National Assembly Speaker, National Assembly Deputy Speakers and heads of the parliamentary groups in the National Assembly.

A number of citizens deprived of liberty and serving their prison sentences in Serbian penitentiaries contacted the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights since 15 May, asking for assistance in exercising their right to one-off financial aid the state is granting to dampen the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. They said that they did not have ID cards at all or that their ID cards had expired and that they were unable to obtain personal documents whilst in prison.

Under the Serbian Government Decree on one-off financial aid to Serbian nationals adopted on 24 April 2020, all adult nationals of Serbia with valid ID cards are entitled to such aid. The Decree, however, does not address exercise of this right by citizens who do not have valid personal documents. The deadline for applying for the financial aid expires on 5 June 2020.

We therefore appeal to the Serbian Government to as soon as possible amend the Decree to enable a large number of Serbian nationals without personal documents (who are living, e.g. in closed institutions or informal Roma settlements), as well as citizens who do not have phones or the Internet, to exercise their right to one-off financial aid. We also urge the Government to extend the deadline for applying for the aid.

The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) alerts the public to the inadmissible conduct of the Bogovađa Asylum Centre security guards, who verbally and physically abused the unaccompanied children living in the Centre. The BCHR filed a criminal report against the guards with the Ub Basic Public Prosecution Service. The incident also prompted a visit to the Centre by the Protector of Citizens on 15 May 2020.

An incident broke out at the Bogovađa Asylum Centre in the night of 11/12 May 2020, during which the guards of the company Dekapolit, contracted to maintain security of the Centre, physically and verbally abused the unaccompanied children living in the Centre. The video footage of the violence clearly shows a guard threatening the children and punching one child and hitting him with an object resembling a baton. The same group of children was intimidated by that guard when he found out that there was video footage of the incident and that the relevant authorities were notified of it.

In BCHR’s view, the conduct of the staff of the company contracted to maintain security in the Bogovađa Asylum Cenre includes elements of the crime of torture and ill-treatment under Article 137 of the Serbian Criminal Code. The BCHR filed a criminal report against the guards to the relevant prosecution service. The competent authorities ought to react urgently in this case since any kind of violence, including within institutions under the State’s jurisdiction, is inadmissible, especially when it is perpetratated against a particularly vulnerable category, such as children.

Given the risk of the violence recurring and that the children are intimidated by the abusers’ ongoing presence in the Centre, we call for their urgent removal from the Bogovađa Asylum Centre and any other facilities in which both refugees and migrants and nationals of Serbia reside. Such an urgent measure should be imposed immediately to protect the children now living in the Republic of Serbia and prevent any similar incidents in Asylum and Reception Centres in the future. Maintaining security of facilities such as Asylum Centres involves exercise of public powers, conferred upon the guards by the State, which is under the obligation to ensure it is not conferred upon abusers. We call on the prosecution service to immediately and thoroughly act on the criminal report given the particular vulnerability of children in the Bogovađa Asylum Centre and on the company Dekapolit to suspend its staff who took part in the incident pending the completion of the investigation and to dismiss them in the event they are found guilty of the crime.