Donors: Federal Foreign Office via Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Belgrade and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Belgrade
Duration: November 2021 – February 2022
The overall goal of the project is to promote and protect human rights in Serbia through monitoring and reporting on the state of human rights and capacity building of experts and human rights defenders. This project responds to the continuing and growing need and demand for improving the human rights situation in Serbia and training young professionals to get and help Serbia’s transition to a democratic society based on the rule of law, human rights and European values.
The key activities on the project include the organization of the Human Rights School "Vojin Dimitrijević", as well as the creation of the annual report on the state of human rights in Serbia for 2021.
The Human Rights School “Vojin Dimitrijević” is an intensive course on the concept of human rights, restrictions and derogations of rights, prohibition of discrimination, right to life, right to liberty and security of person, right to trial, prohibition of torture, freedom of expression, economic, social, and cultural rights, minority rights and other human rights. Using various methods such as lectures, workshops, case studies and panel discussions, students have the opportunity to hear and learn about the theoretical aspects of human rights, ways of protecting human rights as well as other socially relevant topics. Lecturers are professors, judges, lawyers, representatives of international organizations and activists from civil society organizations.
The annual reports, published both in Serbian and English, contain a comparison of domestic laws and other regulations with international norms that bind Serbia, and an assessment of their application in practice. Belgrade Centre for Human Rights’ associates regularly monitor the media, reports of domestic and international non-governmental organizations and intergovernmental organizations, laws, strategies, and action plans. Each year, the report points to broader issues, which determine the attitude towards human rights situation. Since these problems and topics change from year to year, Belgrade Centre for Human Rights always emphasizes and analyses those problems that were the most important in the given year.
