Donor: Swedish International Agency for Development Cooperation (Sida)
Duration of the project: January – December 1998
The main goals of the project were to present an independent Report on the situation in FR Yugoslavia regarding the observance of the rights recognised in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This Report was submitted as a Counter-report to the Yugoslav Government’s Report to the Committee on Economic and Social Rights. Special attention was paid to the factors and difficulties affecting the degree of fulfillment of obligations under the Covenant. The Belgrade Centre and the co-ordinators of this project assisted in the creation of a permanent body (Board), assembling experts and NGOs activists, which would monitor the fulfillment of obligations under international instruments and national laws, and act as a pressure group advocating the economic and social rights.During the project three Round Tables were organized:
- Economic and Social Rights: Financing Social Security – Public Consumption Expenditures and Social Transfers, Income Distribution and Poverty in Yugoslavia, Kotor, 13 – 16 June 1998
- Trade Union Rights and Unemployment, Palic, 12 – 14 September 1998
- Rights of Women, Family and Child, Belgrade, 15 – 16 November 1998
These roundtables were organised in order to evaluate and elaborate the results of a comprehensive research and gathering data from various sources (e.g. official statistics, local centers for social work and NGOs, independent trade unions, academic institutions, etc.) for the project on Economic and Social Rights in Yugoslavia. The draft report was submitted to experts – participants at these roundtables for consideration.
The Report on the economic and social rights in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was published in Serbian and English language. It has 165 pages and the following structure: Introduction; The right to work; The right to just and favorable working conditions; Trade union rights; Social security; Special protection of the family, mothers, children and the young; The right to an adequate standard of living; The highest attainable standards of health; The right to education.
The compilation of the articles that were presented on the Round Tables was also published in the book “Ostvarivanje ekonomskih i socijalnih prava” – (Enjoyment of the Economic and Social Rights).
