The Protector of Citizens welcomes the drafting of the Law on Amendments to the Law on Education Inspection, which expands the activities of education inspection and improves the system of inspection supervision in the Republic of Serbia in the field of education, but considers it a shortcoming that the draft law did not extend the competence of the educational inspection to economic entities that perform the activity of education.

The Protector of Citizens is of the opinion that the text of the draft law should be supplemented by prescribing the performance of inspection supervision in economic entities that perform the activity of education, either as their predominant or as a secondary activity.

Namely, on 26 January 2021, the Protector of Citizens sent to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development an Initiative to change the current regulations in the field of education, which stipulates that the competence of educational inspection and pedagogical supervision, in addition to public and private institutions, should be extended to economic entities that perform the activity of education, either as their predominant or as a secondary activity, which was fully supported by the Ministry.

The Protector of Citizens, Zoran Pasalic, said that journalists in Serbia are still exposed to numerous pressures and various verbal and physical attacks, and announced that he would propose that misdemeanor sanctions be introduced for such acts, which would be executed immediately.

"I will insist on expanding the penal provisions for verbal and physical attacks and pressure on journalists, and I will propose misdemeanor sanctions that will be executed immediately because I noticed that inefficiency in executing punishments is the cause of new attacks, the number of which increased last year", Pasalic said.

On the occasion of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, Pasalic stated that he demanded for those responsible for threats and attacks on journalists to be punished more severely, as well as for the cases of physical attacks on journalists and their property that have not yet been settled to be resolved.

"One of the ways to more effectively protect journalists is the formation of a unique platform for the protection of journalists from attacks and pressures, which was initiated by this institution. The platform will point out mistakes in the way of work and omissions that will give the Protector of Citizens the opportunity to initiate changes to current regulations", said Pasalic.

Pasalic stated that the technical development of the platform was completed and that part of the data was entered into it, and once again called on journalists' associations to submit to the Protector of Citizens systematized data on attacks and pressures on journalists so that the platform would be available to the public as soon as possible.

On his own initiative, and after media information that an attack on a member of the LGBTI community was reported to the police eight days ago, the Protector of Citizens initiated a procedure to control the regularity and legality of the work of the Ministry of Interior.

In order to protect the person of different sexual orientation, the Protector of Citizens requested the Ministry of Interior to provide him within 15 days with all information related to this case, including information on measures taken to identify and prosecute the three attackers on the LGBTI person.

The Protector of Citizens learned from the media that on 26 October 2021, three unknown men first made homophobic statements and then physically attacked a member of the LGBTI community.

The Protector of Citizens asked the Republic Geodetic Authority, after determining that it had made mistakes in its work to the detriment of citizens and that it had not acted upon the ruling of the Administrative Court, to decide without delay on the received complaints of citizens and make decisions based on law.

The Protector of Citizens initiated a procedure to control the regularity and legality of the work of the RGA on the basis of numerous complaints from citizens who were dissatisfied due to failure of the RGA to make decisions on appeals against decisions of the real estate cadastre office and failure to act upon the judgment of the Administrative Court.

During the control procedure, the Protector of Citizens determined that the RGA did not undertake all activities in order to make timely decisions on appeals against decisions of the real estate cadastre office, nor did it act within the legal deadline according to the decision of the Administrative Court, all to the detriment of complainants.

The Protector of Citizens again pointed out to the RGA that the arguments for not acting on appeals against decisions of the real estate cadastre office submitted to this institution have no basis in any valid legal provision because the provisions of the law prescribing deadlines cannot be interpreted expansively, as well as that it makes an unjustified difference in the treatment of cases that are handled through the E-counter and those that are not handled in this way, which puts a certain group of citizens at a disadvantage.

Considering that the realization of property rights in a certain number of cases depends on the completion of cases in which an appeal was filed, the Protector of Citizens requested from the RGA to inform him within 60 days about acting on recommendations, to decide on citizens' complaints and to make meritorious decisions.

The Protector of Citizens also asked from the RGA to take all necessary measures to ensure timely decision-making in administrative matters, in compliance with the legally prescribed deadlines, to ensure that decisions are made in the second instance without delay, as well as to take all necessary measures in order to ensure timely execution of final judgments of the competent courts.