Donor: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, Stability Pact Fund
Duration of project: January 2001 – May 2002
The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights identified the following four priorities for its overarching project of developing and strengthening democracy and human rights culture in Yugoslavia after the political changes in 2000:
- continuation of its two-week training courses;
- reprinting and production of educational materials;
- production of manuals for the police and army; and
- production of two manuals for special target groups.
The project started in 2001 and lasted for two years. The first year of the project envisaged:
- five 10-days training courses
- publishing of 4 books
- two roundtables for police officers, officials of the Ministry of the Interior of Serbia and the military
- two seminars for elementary and high school teachers
- production and publishing of two manuals for special target groups.
Five 10-days training courses for 167 members of legal profession (mostly judges), were of prime importance, specially having in mind that less than 10 percents of 2.600 judges in Serbia had the possibility to attended human rights seminars. The participants at each seminar were from various parts of Serbia so that as many courts as possible were targeted.
The seminars covered the following topics: What are human rights – development of the idea of human rights?; Individual and collective rights; Conditions for the enjoyment of human rights; Implementation of human rights; Restrictions and derogation of human rights; International sources of human rights law; International procedures for human rights protection; Jurisprudence of the European Court for Human Rights; Domestic sources of human rights; Cases before Yugoslav courts in the field of human rights; Right to life and physical integrity; Prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; Prohibition of discrimination; Right to a fair trial; Right to nationality; Right to peaceful enjoyment of property; Freedom of conscience and religion; Freedom of thought and expression; Freedom of movement; Freedom of assembly; Freedom of association; Hate speech; Elections and human rights; Economic, social and cultural rights; Humanitarian law and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia; Criminal punishment for human rights violations, etc.
As the result of training courses, a number of participants were prepared to disseminate acquired knowledge among the target groups; to occupy posts in the reformed government and judiciary structure; to be able to serve as resource persons in the field of legislative and judicial reform, proper administration of justice and promotion of human rights; to be able to better participate in the work of non-governmental organisations and professional associations (e.g. Association of Judges of Serbia) and to assist non-governmental organisations, law clinics and law firms; to act as counsel before international courts and tribunals; to exert strong influence towards democratisation and modernisation.
The Belgrade Centre published four books within this project – two of them reprints and two of them new translations into Serbian. The books “Can Liberal Pluralism Be Exported” by Will Kymlicka and Magda Opalsky and “Lustration” by the Slovene author Andraz Zidar were translated. Two books were reprinted: V. Dimitijevic, M. Paunovic with V. Djeric, “Human Rights – Textbook”, and K. Obradovic, “Humanitarian Law”.
The Centre organized two round tables, one for 29 police officers and officials of the Ministry of the Interior of Serbia and one for officers, persons working in military judiciary, Ministry of Defense and military prosecutors’ offices. The round tables lasted for three days and the lecturers were human rights experts and experts in the field of police and military issues. The discussion served as a basis to improve and adapt the publication of the Centre aimed at human rights education and awareness building of the police and military servants. The lecturers were experts in human rights from Yugoslavia and abroad. The round tables were well received and results served to put the final touches on the manual on human rights for police and military.
Two seminars for elementary and high school teachers were organised, one in Priboj (Sandzak) and another in Novi Sad (Vojvodina). More then twenty participants attended each seminar. The programme envisaged human rights and elementary skills in the field of conflict prevention and resolution in the form of practical experiences administer by a group of psychologists. The learning material for the seminars for teachers was provided by the book published by the Centre under the title, “Human Rights- Manual for Teachers”.
The Centre also published two manuals intended for special target groups. One of them was written by Slobodan Beljanski, president of the Vojvodina Bar Association and of the Council for Combating Corruption, under the title “International Legal Standards in Criminal Proceedings”. It has been extensively used at courses and seminars for judges.
The other title was “Human Rights for Civil Servants”.
In the year 2002 (the second year of the project) envisage three 10-days training courses for 104 members of legal profession (mostly judges) and one weekend seminar outside Belgrade.
