Thursday, 31 December 2015

With a view to improving the arrangements provided for in the Draft Law on Gender Equality, the Protector of Citizens believes certain provisions should be further reviewed and clarified by more accurate wording. These include the provisions pertaining to the duties of local self-governments concerning the formation of gender quality bodies or appointment of a gender equality officer, the duty to provide free legal assistance to victims of domestic violence and consistent use of the term “gender equality” throughout the text.

Wednesday, 23 December 2015 12:12 |

An investigation by the Protector of Citizens found 30 instances of unlawful and irregular actions in the treatment of reporters of the “Istinomer” website by the Municipal Police of the City of Belgrade on 25 September 2015 and in the subsequent operations undertaken by that authority in the wake of the said event.

The most significant omissions by the Municipal Police include unlawful and improper use of physical force, an unlawful warning given to citizens that they were allegedly not allowed to record municipal police officers, repeated inspection of citizens’ identification documents during a single operation, threats by a municipal police officer who said he would destroy a recording device if the crew did not stop filming and failure to respect the dignity of the citizens against whom the officers used their powers.

Wednesday, 23 December 2015 00:00|

The work of relevant public authorities should be coordinated and directed as soon as possible towards amending and harmonising the legislative framework and passing the necessary implementing regulations which would close the existing gaps in social housing policies and enable full and effective enjoyment of the right to housing by vulnerable groups of citizens, reads a communication sent by the Protector of Citizens to the Government of the Republic of Serbia

Thursday, 17 December 2015

The Protector of Citizens welcomes the resolution of the Government of Serbia which, after one and a half years, accepted his recommendation to stop the incorrect and unlawful collection of the solidarity tax and to refund any amounts already collected. The Ombudsman regrets that this had not been done earlier to avoid the additional financial burden for the citizens.

Acting on the complaints filed by dozens of women and organisations, the Protector of Citizens investigated the operations of the Tax Administration of the Ministry of Finance in March 2014 and found the solidarity tax was not levied only on monthly salaries higher than RSD 60,000, as was required by the statute, but also on multiple monthly salaries which were paid cumulatively to pregnant women in arrears.

The Protector of Citizens immediately recommended that the Ministry of Finance stop the unlawful and incorrect levying of the solidarity tax in those instances and refund any amounts unlawfully assessed and collected, but the Ministry of Finance refused to comply with those recommendations even after three meetings between the Minister of Finance and the Protector of Citizens and persisted in its incorrect application of the law. It was only after yesterday’s meeting between the Protector of Citizens and the Prime Minister in which the two discussed this matter that the Government passed a resolution which ordered the Ministry of Finance to remedy this error.