Donor: UNHCR Office in Serbia
Duration: January 2015 – December 2015
In 2015, the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights continued to implement its project of providing adequate legal assistance to asylum-seekers in Serbia. The project was supported by the UNHCR. The Belgrade Centre conducted regular visits to asylum centres in order to provide legal counsel and monitor the situation in the asylum centres as well as the asylum procedure as a whole. The Belgrade Centre gained a clear picture of the degree to which the rights of asylum-seekers were respected in line with the international legal obligations of the Republic of Serbia. Our lawyers provided legal counsel and representation to those in need of it in the asylum procedure. Thus, the Belgrade Centre legal team gained insight into individual decisions on asylum applications. Apart from providing legal aid to asylum-seekers, the Belgrade Centre’s activities this year included strategic litigation and advocacy with members of the national parliament and local assemblies, updating our country-of-origin information database, taking part in the legal clinic organised by the UNHCR at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, organising training sessions for specific target groups in matters related to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), taking part in the National Preventive Mechanism against Torture, organising ten training sessions on refugee law for judges of misdemeanour courts and one for judges of the Administrative Court. Finally, an international conference of asylum experts was organised in Belgrade in September.
