Opinions and Statements

Today, in a several-hour-long meeting, Mr. Zoran Pašalić, the Protector of Citizens, talked with the representatives of the Internet Workers Association exchanging information on the situation of the workers earning income from abroad after the Tax Administration issued forms for them to pay taxes for the previous five years.

At the meeting, initiated by the Protector of Citizens at the end of the last week in order to have a comprehensive understanding of the facts regarding the position of the workers on the Internet, the Associations’ representatives announced that they would submit to the Protector of Citizens relevant documents in their possession.

After learning that citizens who earn income from abroad from freelancing were called to retroactively report and pay taxes for the previous few years, the Protector of Citizens launched own-initiative investigation to control the Tax Administration of the Ministry of Finance.

Upon learning from the media about suspected numerous shortcomings of the competent authorities regarding the exercise of the rights of the citizen of Rwanda married to a citizen of Serbia, the Protector of Citizens launched own-initiative investigation against the Ministry of Interior and the Republic Health Insurance Fund.

The Protector of Citizens learned from the media that a citizen of Rwanda was charged a service in the Clinic for Gynecology and Obstetrics, Clinical Center of Serbia even though she had been married to a Serbian citizen, as well as that their child, who was born mid last year in the Republic of Serbia, has not yet been issued a health card. The Protector of Citizens will also investigate the media allegations about the reasons why a Rwandan citizen was not granted a temporary stay in the Republic of Serbia on the grounds of family reunification.

The Protector of Citizens will request the MOI to provide information within 15 days on the circumstances of the case, and primarily on whether the Rwandan citizen applied to this ministry with a request for temporary residence in Serbia on the grounds of family reunification and, if so, why temporary residence was not granted to her.

In addition, given that it is necessary for the Rwandan citizen to stay in Serbia as she is married to our citizen and has a child with him, the Protector of Citizens requests MOI to notify him on the activities that can be taken to prevent family separation.

From the RHIF, the Protector of Citizens requests that he be informed on all the circumstances of this case within 15 days, and primarily on whether the Rwandan citizen had health insurance deriving from her husband’s insurance at the time of giving birth last year and whether the hospital acted properly when it charged the foreign national for health care.

The Protector of Citizens also requests the competent Health Fund to inform him about the reasons why a health card has not yet been issued to a child whose father resides in Serbia and holding citizenship, as well as what measures will be taken to issue the card to the child as soon as possible.

In order to claim something, one must know a little bit, and the claims of few citizens' associations about the threatened status of the Institution of the Protector of Citizens indicate an unprofessional interpretation of the procedure of an international network for human rights protection and mislead the public, said Mr. Zoran Pašalić, the Protector of Citizens.

It happens again that several marginal associations of citizens, which declare themselves as safeguarding human rights, interpret in an unprofessional and malicious manner the events related to the Protector of Citizens of the Republic of Serbia. Engaging with human rights does not allow for bias, one-sidedness and arbitrariness, but demands commitment, expertise and objectivity.

The fact that none of these citizens' associations representatives has read the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, which specifies that only the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia can control the work of the Protector of Citizens, is yet another indicator of incompetence and ignorance.

A further question is how someone who has neither knowledge nor experience about the functioning of networks of national institutions for human rights protection can be trustworthy to interpret the actions of international bodies in which only national institutions may be members. Such malicious allegations serve solely to mislead the public.

The credibility of these citizens' associations to inform the public has also been challenged, considering that they are talking about a procedure about which they have no knowledge, because as citizens' associations they are not subject to any verification of their work.

The surge in citizens’ addresses in 2020 shows the exceptional trust that the citizens of Serbia have in this Institution, which was confirmed by the survey from December last year, done in cooperation with the United Nations Human Rights Team in Serbia. Also, according to that research, the trust of citizens in the Protector of Citizens (26 percent) is three times higher than in citizens' associations, colloquially called non-government organizations (8 percent).

In the GANHRI, the Institution of the Protector of Citizens of the Republic of Serbia is currently accredited with the highest "A" status, and the re-accreditation of the "A" status, conducted every five years for all "A" status members of the Alliance, has been deferred to October 2021.

The Protector of Citizens of the Republic of Serbia is a member of 12 other international networks that bring together national Ombudspersons from almost all countries of the world. It is also the initiator and a member of the informal Network of the National Ombudspersons from the Balkan Region.

The statuses "A", "B" and "C" granted by the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), being one among the networks of national human rights institutions, indicate the level of compliance of national institutions with the Paris Principles.

Serbia holds the "A" status, as most European countries do. Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Slovakia and Sweden hold "B" status, while Romania and Switzerland hold "C" status.

The Protector of Citizens, on his own initiative, issued an Initiative to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development to amend the applicable legislation in the field of education and pedagogy, which envisages that, in addition to public and private institutions, business entities with educational activity also be within the competence of educational inspection and pedagogical supervision.

"The provisions of the Law on the Fundamentals of the Education System regarding the procedure for establishing institutions, provisions on child safety, rules of conduct and prohibition of discrimination and abuse, violation of honor and reputation, which apply in institutions, should also apply to business entities conducting the activity of education which is not covered by this Law ", stated Mr. Zoran Pašalić, the Protector of Citizens.

The Protector of Citizens proposes that the applicable legislation relating to education and pedagogy in the future include all entities that participate in it, including groups of business entities that conduct educational processes independently of the legally regulated education and pedagogy system, and, for now, without the supervision of the mentioned system.

Mr. Pašalić points out that the proposed change to the legislation should refer to the education that business entities conduct as their predominant activity but also as a secondary activity.

"It is necessary to expand the competence of the educational inspection and professional pedagogical supervision in addition to public and private institutions to business entities performing educational activities that are not covered by the Law on the Fundamentals of the Education System, in order to equally protect the rights and interests of children and students in education" Mr. Pašalić reiterated.

The Protector of Citizens underlines that the process of education and pedagogy, due to its importance, especially when it comes to the young generation, must be regulated in the same way and based on the same Law for everyone who participates in it or is somehow involved in it.

"A situation in which a whole group of economic entities can implement various forms of educational process independently of the legally regulated system of education and pedagogy and without the supervision and control of the said system, can result in many unintended consequences, both in the short and long term", Mr. Pašalić emphasized.

Upon receiving the files from Kragujevac Social Welfare Center and the documents from the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy, the Protector of Citizens launched control of the regularity of the Center’s activities regarding the removal of Mr. Đorđe Joksimović's three children to a foster family and his partial deprivation of parental rights.

The Institution employees commenced determining the facts and the manner of work of the competent center based on extensive documentation that arrived at the Protector of Citizens’ on Monday afternoon, as well as establishing the facts from the documents that the Protector of Citizens received on Thursday, 21 January 2021 from the competent ministry.

The Protector of Citizens expects to have an insight into the documentation that should be submitted by Mr. Đorđe Joksimović, who suggested this possibility during the talk with the Protector of Citizens Zoran Pašalić on 21 January 2021.

After learning from the media that a citizen of the Republic of Serbia has been trying for years to return his three children placed in foster care under guardianship, the Protector of Citizens initiated own-initiative investigation to control work regularity and legality of the Kragujevac Center and the line ministry.

Regarding the information in the media that this citizen has long ago fulfilled all the conditions required by the guardianship authority, but that he cannot make contact with the authorities in SWC "Solidarnost (Solidarity)" in Kragujevac, the Protector of Citizens initiated the investigation over the possibility of endangering or violating rights and best interest of children.

After learning about the possible violation of the rights of pregnant women and nursing mothers due to the reduction of compensation with employers who used government support measures during the pandemic, the Protector of Citizens requested from the Ministry of Finance information on the manner of handling tax and contribution bases of employees in businesses which have been deferred the maturity time for paying taxes and contributions on salaries and wages and which are entitled to paying the deferred taxes and contributions in the following 24 months.

The Protector of Citizens learned from the media that the state-imposed measures to mitigate the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, including deferring the payment of taxes and contributions, have led to mothers, whose employers used this aid, receiving a significantly reduced compensation for pregnancy and maternity leave.

In the light of this development, the Protector of Citizens has requested information from the Ministry of Finance how the tax and contribution base is handled, for those employees in businesses whose due date for payment of taxes and contributions on salaries and salary compensations has been deferred and how it affects the exercise of the right to compensation for pregnant women and nursing mothers who exercised the right to compensation in the period from the adoption of the Decree on fiscal benefits and direct benefits to businesses in the private sector and financial assistance to citizens to mitigate economic consequences of COVID-19 up until 4 January 2021, and on the other hand, in what way it affects the ones who obtained the right after 4 January 2021.

Given that this affects pregnant women and nursing mothers who are in a particularly sensitive position, the Protector of Citizens expects the competent ministry to provide the information within 15 days.

Mr. Zoran Pašalić, the Protector of Citizens, said that the regional cooperation of the Balkan Ombudspersons proved to be extremely important for helping citizens during the Covid-19 virus pandemic, and that it had solved many problems faced by citizens from the Balkans.

Mr. Pašalić emphasized that the Ombudsman Institution was extremely important in difficult situations, such as Covid-19 virus pandemic, and underlined that the number of Serbian citizens addresses to this institution surged in that period.
The Protector of Citizens of the Republic of Serbia drew attention to the fact that this institution had worked more intensively during the state of emergency so as to respond to numerous citizens’ complaints.

In addition, Mr. Pašalić pointed out that two civil society organizations’ survey conducted last April, as well as the survey of the United Nations Human Rights Team from December 2020, showcased the Protector of Citizens of the Republic of Serbia as the Institution which the citizens trusted the most and which they would first address in case they had any problems.

Mr. Pašalić participated in an online meeting of Balkan region ombudspersons, organized to exchange experiences on the current situation, the experiences of the ombudspersons in the context of the pandemic and to discuss the status of the "Network of National Ombudspersons of the Balkan region".

“Establishing a network of the Ombudspersons from the Balkan region is very important for the well-being of citizens who live, work or find themselves in the Balkans, which proved especially beneficial during the first days and months of the pandemic when citizens had problems regarding transit," said Mr. Pašalić thanking his colleagues from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina with whom he cooperated in order to mitigate the problems of citizens in transit.

Conference participants agreed that the pandemic has definitely affected the human rights situation, especially in the areas of health care, access to education, labor rights, migration and stressed the importance of regional cooperation.

Upon learning that there is a suspicion that one of the broadcast videos was violating child rights, the Protector of Citizens, Mr. Zoran Pašalić, launched an investigation to control work legality and regularity of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM).

With a view to taking measures within the competences and safeguarding the best interests of the child, Ms. Jelena Stojanović, the Deputy Protector of Citizens for Child Rights and Gender Equality, initiated own initiative immediate control of the REM’s work scheduled for 2 June 2020.

Within the instigated investigation, Ms. Stojanović requested REM to submit information on what control measures and activities the REM had taken on suspicion of child rights being violated by broadcasting media content, when and which media service providers informed REM that a complaint for non-compliance with the rules on the protection of minors had been filed, as well as whether, when and which media service provider had submitted a request to REM for an opinion on the program content compliance with the Rulebook on the Protection of Minors’ Rights in the field of Providing Media Services.

The Deputy Protector of Citizens also requested REM to provide information whether the regulatory body had examined if the broadcast media content had been in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as with the Law on Electronic Media and the Rulebook on Protection of Minors' Rights in Media Services, the implementation of which REM monitors.

In addition, Ms. Stojanović requested REM to provide responses within 15 days on all questions, as well as on the planned measures and activities if none had been undertaken up to that moment.

The Institution of the Protector of Citizens is mandated to control the work of the organizations with delegated public powers, REM being one of them, pursuant to Article 1 of the Law on the Protector of Citizens. She has pointed out that neither monitoring the work of media service providers, nor prohibiting nor approving the broadcasting of any sort of media content falls within the Protector of Citizens’ competence, even though sometimes it might be erroneously concluded.

The Deputy Protector of Citizens has once again urged all social life stakeholders to mandatorily respect child rights and to act in the best interests of each of us, as assessed in every specific situation, as well as to interpret and implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child with a view to advancing physical, mental and moral development of a child.

Ms. Stojanović has also called on REM to carry out its control activity as soon as possible if it has failed to do so up to now in order to react as urgently as possible, if a violation of the rights of the child is established, pursuing the best interest of the child as the most vulnerable category of the population. Every state authority, institutions and public institutions in every activity, affecting the child directly or indirectly, must attach paramount importance to the best interests of the child, the Deputy Protector of Citizens has said.