Donor: anadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
Duration of the project: November 2006 – March 2008
The main goal of the project was to contribute to the capacity of the civil society organizations and legal expertise in Serbia through strengthening human rights advocacy initiatives, increasing interest in human rights protection before the courts and preventing human rights violations and abuses resulting from the implementation of the rule of law in the judicial system in Serbia.The Belgrade centre has developed methodology for monitoring the processes within the judicial system in Serbia and trained a team of young experts to monitor the activities of courts and other state institutions in the fields of organized crime, war crimes, discrimination and domestic violence. The monitoring groups attended the court proceedings taking place in the Special Department of the Belgrade District Court and trials in various Serbian municipal courts. Monitors also regularly followed the daily newspapers Politika, Danas, Kurir and Blic, weekly magazines NIN and Vreme, as well as the electronic media articles on issues of war crimes, organized crime, domestic violence and discrimination.
As a result of this Project a database (database is in Serbian language and can be accessed from the Centre’s webpage in Serbian) of 48 media reports, 48 monthly reports, the final annual report and 4 E-bulletins named “Osmatračnica” (The Watch-Tower) in the fields of organised crime, war crimes, discrimination and family violence and other materials collected in the process of monitoring was created and posted on line.
The Final report (All the reports are in Serbian language and can be accessed from the Centre’s webpage in Serbian) including general overview of the judiciary institutions’ results with recommendations for improvement of their status and practice was published in 1,200 copies and distributed to the High Judicial Council, the Supreme Court, district and municipal courts, MPs – parliamentary committees, relevant police departments, predominantly those dealing with organized crime and war crimes, and NGOs.
The Final report was presented to expert public and relevant stakeholders at four round tables, each devoted to one of the monitoring areas. It was also presented to general public at the press-conference.
Monitoring activities were continued in 2008 and 2009 with support of the Institute for Sustainable Communities.
