Donor: International Federation of Leagues for Human Rights (FIDH)
Duration of the project: September 1996

A conference on The Rights of Refugees and Displaced Persons and Fight Against Impunity in the  Successor State to the SFR Yugoslavia was held in Belgrade, 26 – 29 September 1996 in co-operation with the International Federation of Leagues for Human Rights in Paris, brought together in Belgrade, for the first time since the break-up of the SFRY, a large number of longstanding human rights defenders, media representatives and experts from all the regions of the former Yugoslavia and abroad, as well as representatives of non-governmental organisations from countries having shared similar experiences. (more…)

Donor: Swedish International Agency for Development Cooperation (Sida)
Duration of the project: April 1996 – May 1997

Struck by the by the massive and blatant violations of humanitarian law during the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia since 1991 the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights started in 1996 its project Contemporary Humanitarian Law.  The purpose was to induce wider knowledge and understanding in this field, to increase the awareness of law and obligations among military officers, politicians, as well as in the wider population. Namely, had information about the Geneva Conventions been were more widespread, it is highly probable that combatants and others who obeyed orders to commit grave breaches of humanitarian law would have offered more resistance.  In the present in FR Yugoslavia, as well as in all the parts of the former Yugoslavia, international humanitarian  law of  armed conflicts is not known well enough. (more…)

Donor: Swedish International Agency for Development Cooperation (Sida)
Duration of the project: April 1996 – May 1997

The aim of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights was to produce and publish a manageable and accessible text-book (Manual) of international human rights law in Serbian. The reason for this was the belief that one of the causes of the lamentable human rights situation in FRY was the lack of knowledge and understanding of human rights, not only in the general public, but also among those supposed to deal with human rights issues in education, law enforcement, legal representation, reporting on human rights issues, etc. The Centre opted for an original text in the local language and for the format of a manual taking into account the local circumstances, the legal situation in the country, and traditions. (more…)

Donor: Swedish International Agency for Development Cooperation (Sida)
Duration of the project: April 1996 – May 1997

The adoption of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child coincided with the beginning of a transition period in Yugoslavia. From the legal point of view, the ratification the Convention did not bring changes in the existing law, nor the adoption of new legislation. There is no special act on children in Yugoslavia. The main goals of the project were: to produce a publication on the state of the rights of the child, to collect information on NGOs involved in the protection of the rights of child and to analyse their work, to advocate improvement of legislation, and to monitor the system of protection of the rights of the child. (more…)

1. The Belgrade Centre marked its establishment with a seminar “Human Rights – International Standards” – Belgrade 29 – 31 March 1995, attended by prominent experts from Yugoslavia and abroad. The lack of literature on human rights in Serbian and the high quality of the lectures and discussions at the seminar encouraged the Centre to publish its first book, Rights and Freedoms – International and Yugoslav Standards.
2. The seminar Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, held in Kotor from 26 to 30 September 1995, was primarily intended for judges, lawyers, research fellows at institutes and Parliament members. It was the first seminar to highlight the problem of humanitarian law and its implementation in the regions of the former Yugoslavia.
3. The wars that were going on in the territories of former Yugoslavia, left Serbia and Montenegro with more than 600.000 refugees. Taking this into consideration and with the co-operation of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Centre held the seminar International Law and Refugees in the Territories of the Former Yugoslavia in Belgrade on 24 and 25 November 1995. It attracted a great deal of attention among both experts and the media as it was the first seminar held in Yugoslavia that addressed the legal dimensions of the status of the refugees, i.e. the accordance of domestic regulations and international standards and their implementation, as well as other unresolved issues relating to refugee status.