Opinions and Statements

Free medical examination of domestic violence victims by forensic doctors, further to the Protector of Citizens’ proposal, has become a mandatory part of the measures envisaged in the Strategy for Prevention and Combating Gender-Based Violence against Women and Domestic Violence for the period 2021-2025.

For years, the Protector of Citizens has been urging that victims of domestic violence be provided with an urgent examination by forensic doctors in order to "fix" the evidence and to use that medical report later in court proceedings, thus making the adequate sanctioning of the perpetrator possible.

"Since 2004, in the capacity of a judge of the Misdemeanor Court in Belgrade and subsequently in the Republic, I have been addressing the issues of identifying and protecting domestic violence victims, primarily women, and creating opportunities for the competent authorities to take upon them specific assistance to victims in terms of prosecuting and punishing those who dare to commit violence. This has been carried out through the Strategy", said the Protector of Citizens, Mr. Zoran Pašalić.

Mr. Pašalić has stated that the practice has shown that many victims in court proceedings withdraw the statements given immediately after the violence occurred and thus impede the hearing of evidence for any reason, and that in such a situation an examination by authorized institutions would be a way to ensure that abusers do not escape punishment for their behavior.

"For all these years of work, I have noticed, on a sample of thousands of families, that the most severe consequence of domestic violence is the opening of the next round of violence, because living with domestic violence frequently breeds either a future abuser or a future victim" said Mr. Pašalić and added that the adopted solution was a good starting point as to the direction in which the competent authorities should head.

Pursuant to the Istanbul Convention and GREVIO Group recommendations, the suggestion from the Protector of Citizens’ normative opinion on the Proposed Strategy for Prevention and Combating Gender-Based Violence against Women and Domestic Violence for the period 2021-2025 to introduce "conducting free, specialist and forensic, medical and laboratory examinations and providing free psychological support compliant with the needs of victims of violence", has been adopted.

The proposal of the Protector of Citizens to use the phrase "women of different sexual orientation and gender identity" when referencing women from vulnerable social groups has been included in the Strategy as well, and elderly women have been categorized as a vulnerable social group.

The Protector of Citizens, Mr. Zoran Pašalić, wished Happy Easter to all citizens of the Republic of Serbia who celebrate according to the Julian calendar wishing them to spend it in good health, peace and prosperity and stated that solidarity and tolerance are key to facing the challenges of our time.

"I wish Happy Easter to all citizens celebrating the greatest Christian holiday according to the Julian calendar for the second time in different conditions from those they are used to. We all strive to return to the usual way of life, and in the altered life circumstances, the trump cards for it are tolerance, mutual respect and care for others ", said the Protector of Citizens, Mr. Zoran Pašalić.

The Protector of Citizens, Mr. Zoran Pašalić congratulated all journalists and media professionals on May 3 – World Press Freedom Day and underscored that mutual solidarity is the main requisite for improving their position and reducing all sorts of pressure and attacks on the profession representatives.

"Collegiality and support, more precisely mutual solidarity of journalists, are the main requisites for improving the position of journalists in our country. Pressure and attacks on journalists were recorded last year as well, and their register, as in previous years, is still not a single one," Mr. Pašalić has said.

Pašalić said that a year ago, in May 2020, he had signed the Agreement with seven media associations and three journalists' unions on establishing a platform for recording cases of safety threats and pressure on journalists and other media actors, that the technical development of that platform had been completed and that the available data was being fed into the database.

“The goal is to establish a single database on attacks on journalists, as well as a more efficient mechanism for protecting the safety of journalists. All data on attacks and pressure on journalists compiled in one place will contribute to more effective actions of the competent authorities in cases of endangering journalists safety," the Protector of Citizens has stated.

At the same time, the compiled data will bring about a more efficient reaction of the Protector of Citizens to the actions of the competent authorities in the reported cases of violating media freedom and freedom of expression, Pašalić has said.

According to the new Draft Law on the Protector of Citizens, which has been up for public consultation since Wednesday, 28 April 2021, the Protector of Citizens will be acting as the National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings, Ms. Jelena Stojanović, the Deputy Protector of Citizens for Child Rights and Gender Equality, has said.

"The Protector of Citizens, as an independent state body, is experienced in conducting investigations, both upon citizens' complaints and on own initiative, to control the legality and regularity of the competent bodies’ work upon learning that trafficking in human beings is implicated,” said Ms. Stojanović at the meeting of the Regional Working Group of representatives of national institutions that handle monitoring and reporting in the field of trafficking in human beings.

At the online meeting, Stojanović reminded that the revised Action Plan for the negotiating Chapter 23 envisages the appointment of a national rapporteur on trafficking in human beings within the Institution of the Protector of Citizens. The meeting of the Regional Working Group, consisting of representatives of national institutions from Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Macedonia, Albania and Serbia, was held within the regional project "BAN 3 - Balkans Act Now" implemented by the "Astra" organization.

In the Regional Working Group, each country is represented by three representatives of the national working group that prepared the monitoring report to review the situation in the field of protection of trafficking victims, which can serve to monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of legislative and institutional mechanisms to combat trafficking. On behalf of the Republic of Serbia, the working group includes representatives of the Protector of Citizens, the Ministry of the Interior and the Center for the Protection of Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings.

The Action Plan for implementing the Strategy for Improving the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the Republic of Serbia from 2020 to 2024 designates the Protector of Citizens to act as the national monitoring mechanism on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Protector of Citizens has been designated by the Action Plan as one of the partners in implementing the activities dedicated to developing and implementing an accessibility action plan.
The Action Plan, adopted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia in early April this year, refers to the period from 2021 to 2022, and the Protector of Citizens provided normative opinions in the process of preparing this strategic document.

The Protector of Citizens’ suggestion to reform the legislative framework in the field of legal capacity in order to ensure that people with disabilities enjoy all the rights on an equal footing with other citizens and to set up an assistive decision making system that would replace guardianship protection was inserted in the Action Plan.

Further to the Protector of Citizens’ suggestion, the Action Plan specifies and enables larger availability of services for the protection of sexual and reproductive health of girls and women with disabilities, as well as creating multidisciplinary trainings regarding the manner of treatment, access to and provision of healthcare services for persons with disabilities and realization of these trainings.

The Protector of Citizens suggested, and the Government of the Republic of Serbia included in the Action Plan, intensification of additional assistance services to students and pupils with developmental disabilities and with disabilities, particularly at the local level.

Further to the Protector of Citizens’ suggestion, preparation of cost analysis of the Budget Fund for professional rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities in the period from 2009 to 2020 has been made part of the Action Plan within the measures of active employment policy of persons with disabilities in the open labor market.

Upon learning from the media that a Roma child was abused after being taken to the police station in Brus, and subsequently fainted, the Protector of Citizens launched own-initiative investigation to control work legality and regularity of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia.

The Protector of Citizens has requested the MOI to submit, within 15 days, the information and relevant documentation on activities undertaken in order to examine the allegations on possible overstepping police powers by the police officer of Brus PS, as well as on the measures taken if his responsibility has been established.

The Protector of Citizens has requested MOI as well to notify him whether the allegations that the child was detained without being accompanied by a parent and that the child was interrogated without the presence of a person trained to work with minors are true.

Zoran Pašalić, the Protector of Citizens, requested the Ministry of Family Care and Demography, which took over part of the competence of the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy, to repeal the work order issued three years ago to all social welfare centers in Serbia, according to which, among other things, they are obliged to take away in an urgent procedure the children living and working on the streets from the parents and initiate court proceedings for the deprivation of parental rights.

“I reiterate that automatic taking away of the children is not a solution as it is necessary to ascertain whether it is human trafficking, which means abusing children and violating their rights, or those children have nothing to live on. The competent authorities should focus on identifying and rooting out the causes that led to the children being on the streets, and not on the consequences, " said Mr. Pašalić on observing 12 April - International Day of Children Involved in Street Life and/or Work.

Last year, the Protector of Citizens determined that the Ministry of Labor, by issuing a work order in May 2018, had acted contrary to the UN Convention on Child Rights, and had directed social welfare centers to illegal conduct. In 2020, that Ministry refused to act on the Recommendation of the Protector of Citizens to revoke this order.

The problem of "street children" cannot be seen only as a problem of the Ministry of Family Care and Demography. That is an issue for the Ministry of Interior as well which is to identify the organizers of begging and to prosecute the responsible ones where there is room for it, but also for the society as a whole – from the individuals who should be included in noticing the children who work and live on the streets and report it to competent authorities all the way to social welfare centers that should support families to escape poverty or to strengthen parental capacities, Pašalić has said.

In addition to physical labor, the main problems of children involved in living and working on the streets are extreme poverty and uneven access to education, frequently accompanied by discrimination, as well as "child marriages" that deprive them of childhood and prevent them from enjoying their rights, the Protector of Citizens has underscored.

“Street children” have been facing numerous risks that have consequences on their health and development, which is why the competent authorities should make extra efforts to protect child rights and best interests, Pašalić has said.

On International Roma Day – 8 April, the Protector of Citizens, Zoran Pašalić, has underscored that, amid pandemic, the Roma population, that is for the most part discriminated against and marginalized, is at a much greater risk and has called on the competent authorities to make additional efforts to improve the Roma assistance services in such emergency circumstances.

“A predominant part of the Roma community in the Republic of Serbia, especially families living in informal settlements, are in a challenging position. I call on the competent authorities to make additional efforts to mitigate the pandemic consequences, which can be striking in the social and economic segment of the Roma community life “ Mr. Pašalić has stated.

Given that most Roma settlements in the Republic of Serbia do not have access to water, electricity or the Internet and are not in a position to maintain basic hygiene or to enable children to attend school classes via the Internet, the Protector of Citizens reminded that they had visited ten Roma settlements during the state of emergency immediately upon the pandemic outbreak.

Inadequate living conditions and lack of sanitary infrastructure make it impossible in the first place to fully comply with preventive measures which puts members of the Roma community in an adverse position and at even greater risk, Pašalić said.

“The Covid-19 virus pandemic has been going on for a year now and additional assistance and support measures to the Roma community rights are needed. I expect that the local self-government units where Roma settlements are located will fully comply with the recommendations we issued last year, “said Pašalić.

World Roma Day was declared in 1990 in the Polish city of Serock, in remembrance of the first World Roma Congress held in early April 1971 in London.