Donor: Swedish Helsinki Committee
Duration of the project: June 2006 – May 2007
The Juvenile Justice Act came into force on 1 January 2006. In June 2006 the State Union Serbia and Montenegro (due to the successful referendum on independence of Montenegro) disappeared, but that fact did not affect legislation because the new Juvenile Justice Act is binding only for Serbia. According to the new Law juvenile justice is under the primary jurisdiction of the district courts, with specific judges in these courts specializing in juvenile issues. Judicial Training Centre has the competence to issue the certificates for the judges who are preceding cases where the minors are the victims or offenders of the crime. From January 2006 judges have undergone several training programs, focusing specifically on the standards developed by the European Court in this area, as well as on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. These training programs will continue for the foreseeable future. The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights decided to contribute with translating and publishing the compilation of the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights on juvenile justice. In this way the European standards on juvenile justice and adequate treatment of juveniles have been presented to the wide legal audience in Serbia.
The book contain eight cases V v. UK; Nortier v. Netherlands, Nielsen v. Denmark, Boumar v. Belgium, K. and T. v. Finland, T. P. and K. M. v. UK, D. G. v. Ireland and M. C. v. Bulgaria. Judicial Training Centre received 80 copies of the book. The book is useful for the specialised judges but for the wider public too thanks to the fact that book was posted on the Web site of the Belgrade Centre.
