Donor: Swedish Helsinki Committee
Duration of the project: July 2007 – June 2008
Treatment of persons deprived of their liberty remains one of the most frequent problems in the field of human rights in Serbia. The one of the main reasons for relatively frequent violations of this right is shortcoming of legal education and low awareness on international standards. There are only a few judgments per year with compensations for unlawful deprivation of liberty, illegal or arbitrary detention or other violations of the right to liberty and security of person. Therefore Belgrade Centre for Human Rights prolonged cooperation with Swedish Helsinki Committee with the main goal to spread knowledge on international standards of liberty and security of person. Translating European Court of Human Rights judgement is essential to bring closer the practice of the Court not only to judges but to the legal professionals, students and population in general in Serbia. Additionally, the book on European Court of Human Rights judgements contributed to the legal education on universities and professional development training of judges and prosecutors. It will provide useful teaching and research material for all those who need to acquire the basic knowledge or to expand their capacities and view of the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty.Some of human rights violations (especially violations of the right to liberty and security of person) come as a result of lack of knowledge concerning new European standards and jurisprudence of the European Court for Human Rights. Judges and prosecutors are not capacitated to apply European standards as they are obliged by both the national legislation and European Convention of Human Rights. Decisions and recommendations of the international treaty bodies and especially judgments of the European Court for Human Rights are something that professionals (judges, prosecutors, attorneys, etc.) generally do not know, particularly because of the lack of translated texts. This is fundamental problem undermining principles of rule of law and legal security. The compilation include cases that are of general importance for the protection of persons deprived of their liberty and of the importance for problems that Serbian society faces.
After publishing the book BCHR organised Round Table in January 2008. to present the ECtHR case law to the judges, prosecutors, civil servants and journalists.
