Protector of Citizens Saša Janković submitted on 14 March the Regular Annual Report of the Protector of Citizens for 2014 to the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, in accordance with the law. The Report among other things concludes that the situation with regard to the rule of law and legal certainty, respect of the good governance principles, organization and capacity of public administration, implementation of laws and, above all, economic situation was such that it was not possible to guarantee a level of respect of citizens’ rights necessary for dignified life for everyone.
Improvements in certain issues in fields such as health care were not sufficient to change the overall evaluation, but they are praiseworthy. The fact that most of the public authorities respond positively to findings of the Protector of Citizens is also praiseworthy. In 90 percent of cases, those authorities rectified omissions in their operations which harmed citizens’ rights and which were identified by the Protector of Citizens in inspection procedures. A total of 23,340 citizens contacted the Protector of citizens in 2014.
The Ministry of Defence and the Military Security Agency (MSA) refused to submit to the Protector of Citizens the information they hold about the incident during the Pride Parade. By refusing to cooperate, they contravened the internationally recognized principle of democratic civil supervision of security services and violated the Law on the Protector of Citizens, the Law on Serbian Army, the Law on Basic Principles of Regulation of Security Services the Law on Military Security Agency and Military Intelligence Agency and the Law on Protection of Whistleblowers in terms of supervision of the work of security services and the rights of servicemen of the Army (and of security services)
In accordance with the Law on the Protector of Citizens, the entire text of the Report is available to the public in the Serbian language on the official website of the Protectors of Citizens at: http://www.ombudsman.rs/index.php/lang-sr/2011-12-25-10-17-15/3733--2014-
Depending on financial and other means, the entire Report for 2014 or its parts will be available in the English language and in the languages of minorities.