Tuesday, 12 January 2016

The Protector of Citizens has issued an Opinion to the Ministry of Interior in connection with the announced staff cuts at that Ministry. Nebojša Stefanović, Minister of Interior, announced in December 2015 that between 1300 and 1400 employees “who solicited bribes and engaged in corruption” would be dismissed by the end of the year.

The Opinion states it was found from the complaints received and the media coverage of the events that the relevant job classification rulebook had recently been amended to provide for “risk analysis” posts that had hitherto not existed and for which the complainants alleged there was no real need. It was also found that many employees had been transferred to those “risk analysis” posts in late 2015; however, the job classification rulebook was slated for an amendment in early 2016 which would see those posts dropped as a cost-cutting measure.

“If there are indeed 1400 ‘criminalised’ police officers currently on the force, addressing this matter by reorganisation and staff cuts is incompatible with the rule of law (especially if the measures involved are fictitious). Instead, this issue should and must be tackled exclusively by initiating relevant investigations, meting out punishment and dismissing those found guilty”, reads the Opinion of the Protector of Citizens.

Tuesday, 12 January 2016

Following the recommendation given by the Protector of Citizens in the Report of the Visit to the Preševo Reception Centre in September 2015, which was repeated in December of the same year during a visit to that institution, the competent authorities have erected a canopy at the entrance to the Centre which shelters refugees from precipitation while they stand in the line for registration.

The Protector of Citizens welcomes this improvement in the conditions of acceptance of refugees who transit through Serbia.

Tuesday, 12 January 2016

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development has complied well ahead of schedule with the recommendations of the Protector of Citizens concerning the procedure for filing petitions and granting authorisation to change the name of a public primary school in Novi Pazar.

The response provided by the Ministry states a Draft Decision to authorise the Change of School Name has been prepared and that authority has initiated a procedure to supplement its Information Booklet with information that would significantly improve the procedure of filing petitions for authorisation to change school names, as well as the criteria for evaluating the justifiability of the reasons provided in such petitions.

Friday, 8 January 2016
The Protector of Citizens has found that the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media has not taken action against the national broadcaster RTS1 for making children identifiable in a report on children placed in the sole custody of one parent after their parents’ divorce, which was broadcast in the central news programme “TV Journal 2” and posted on the RTS website. Quite apart from the fact that this programme constituted a clear violation of the duty to protect minors and respect personal dignity, it also provided information on a lawsuit concerning family matters, from which the public should be excluded in accordance with the law.