Opinions and Statements

When making national level decisions, it is necessary to involve children in this process in order to hear their voice on issues concerning their rights; it was settled at the two-day annual conference of the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC), attended by the Deputy Protector of Citizens for Child Rights Ms. Jelena Stojanović.

At the online conference, Ms. Stojanović highlighted the importance of informing children and young people about all issues related to the exercise of rights and the protection of child best interests, as well as scaling up the opportunities for their opinions to be heard when making decisions that affect them.

Various impacts on child rights, above all the current pandemic, were the topics of the online conference, held on 16 and 17 November 2020, attended by the representatives of more than 30 European countries.
The ENOC conference discussed the impact of decisions made at the national level in the field of child rights, child rights amid the current epidemic, LGBTIQ + child rights, as well as the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, before decision-making and subsequent evaluation.

Members of ENYA (European Network of Young Advisors) presented their recommendations for better realization of children's rights in the current conditions, while ENOC members especially emphasized the importance of participation and involvement of all children in decision-making, as well as the importance of their participation in such processes.

Conference participants agreed that it was necessary to raise awareness of children, as well as adults, about the rights of children through various activities.

ENOC's Position Statement on the child rights impact assessment (CRIA)ENOC's Position Statement on the child rights impact assessment (CRIA) was unanimously adopted at the annual General Assembly of this organization, held online on 17 and 18 November 2020.

The Protector of Citizens determined that the Bogovađa Asylum Center and the Inter-Municipal Social Welfare Center for the municipalities of Ljig, Lajkovac and Mionica did not take appropriate measures regarding the physical violence of security workers against minor migrants who were accommodated in the center in Bogovađa and requested the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia to ascertain all the circumstances of this incident.

Acting upon his own initiative, the Protector of Citizens identified numerous omissions in the work of these two centers and requested that they immediately inform the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia about the entire case.
Investigation of controlling work legality and regularity of the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, the Bogovađa Asylum Center and the Inter-Municipal Social Welfare Center for the municipalities of Ljig, Lajkovac and Mionica was initiated by the Protector of Citizens after the Group for Children and Youth "Indigo" informed him that on 11 May 2020, an unaccompanied minor migrant accommodated in the Bogovađa Asylum Center had addressed them claiming that unaccompanied minor migrants accommodated in this center had suffered physical violence by members of the security.

He submitted to the "Indigo" Group recordings and photographs of violence and injuries, which this association forwarded to the Protector of Citizens. The recordings and photographs, as stated by this group, were taken on the night of 10/11 May 2020, in the period from 9.05 pm to 3.25 am.

In the recommendations that the Protector of Citizens issued to the bodies whose work was controlled, it is stated, among other things, that it is necessary for the Bogovađa Asylum Center and the Inter-Municipal Social Welfare Center for the municipalities of Ljig, Lajkovac and Mionica immediately inform the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia about the facts and circumstances related to the physical abuse of unaccompanied minor migrants by the security officers of the Bogovađa Asylum Center on the night 10/11 May 2020.

The Ministry of Interior, according to the Protector of Citizens, should determine whether the allegations that the police officers on the night 10/11 May 2020 intervened in Bogovađa Asylum Center to ensure maintaining peace in sleeping areas, whether police officers were aware that violence against underage migrants by security workers had occurred that night and whether they took any measures and activities in that regard.
The Protector of Citizens’ recommendation reads that the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration should develop appropriate guidelines on how the centers’ managers should act in cases of suspicion of violence against and ill-treatment of unaccompanied underage migrants.

The Protector of Citizens believes that acting upon the given recommendations can improve the work of the Commissariat for Refugees, Migration, and the centers within it, and he issued certain recommendations aimed at improving competencies and establishing additional work rules.

The Protector of Citizens, Mr. Zoran Pašalić, met today with Deputy Head of the Belgrade Office, Ms. Nadia Ćuk, her associate, Ms. Maja Stojanović, UNS representative, Mr. Vladimir Radomirović and NUNS representatives, Mr. Rade Đurić and Ms. Tamara Filipović.

The topic of the meeting was the Agreement on the Establishment of a Platform for Recording Cases of Security Threats and Pressure on Journalists and Other Media Actors, which was recently signed between the Protector of Citizens and media associations, groups and trade unions.

Single records and more precise defining of terms that refer to attacks and pressures on journalists, significantly contribute to the establishment of a more efficient mechanism for protecting journalists safety.

Mr. Pašalić stated that he believed that proper recording of each individual case of endangering journalists’ safety and any form of pressure on journalists and media workers would lead to more efficient actions of competent state bodies in such situations.

Mr. Pašalić added that after obtaining the results on all types of attacks, the Protector of Citizens would initiate new legal solutions that would identify and sanction them.

After learning from the media about domestic violence incident resulting in one woman being killed, the Protector of Citizens initiated own-initiative investigation of controlling work legality and regularity of the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy and Paraćin Social Welfare Center.

The Protector of Citizens requested the Ministry of Interior and Paraćin Social Welfare Center to submit all information and documentation on this case within 15 days at the latest.

The Protector of Citizens requested the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy to carry out the monitoring of the Paraćin Social Welfare Center in this case and to submit the information and documentation. In order to get acquainted with all the facts and circumstances, the Protector of Citizens also asked Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Paraćin to submit information regarding this case.

After collecting all the answers and documentation, the Protector of Citizens will decide on the further activities and inform the public accordingly.

Following the information from the media, the Protector of Citizens, Mr. Zoran Pašalić contacted a group of our citizens stranded on the Greek-Bulgarian border, hopeless to continue their journey, in order to be informed about their position.

Mr. Pašalić then asked his fellow ombudsmen in Bulgaria and Greece and our embassy in Athens to react urgently, in accordance with their competencies, and assist that group which included parents with babies.

On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women – 25 November, the Protector of Citizens, Zoran Pašalić, shed light on the fact that the living conditions imposed by the pandemic increase the risk of violence against women and stressed that rural women, women with disabilities and Roma women, who had been in a vulnerable position before the pandemic, faced the most challenges.

“Fears, uncertainty, poverty and economic insecurity increase the risk domestic violence and violence against women surge, which may result in tragic consequences. I therefore reiterate my call to local governments to allocate funds to allow victims of violence to be examined immediately by a forensic doctor in order to establish the link between the violence and the consequences”, Mr. Pašalić stated.

The Protector of Citizens highlighted that special attention should be devoted to the protection of vulnerable groups of women, as well as to improving and developing community services through which women in a situation of violence will be provided all kinds of support and assistance.

Mr. Pašalić stated that the competent authorities should fully implement the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence and work on raising public awareness of the absolute inadmissibility and punishability of gender-based violence, as well as that Safe Houses and other forms of alternative accommodation should be available to victims of violence, as well as other measures of assistance and support.

The Protector of Citizens also highlighted the need to adopt the National Strategy for Prevention and Elimination of Violence against Women in the Family and in Intimate Partner Relationship and the accompanying Action Plan and to the need to harmonize the Criminal Code with the Council of Europe’s Convention on Preventing and Combatting violence against women and domestic violence.

For more than 20 years, the campaign has been conducted every year in about 100 countries around the world “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence” where 1,700 organizations are taking part. The campaign starts on November 25 - International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and ends on December 10 - International Human Rights Day.

November 25 has been designated for the date of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, as the day of remembrance for the Mirabel sisters (Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa) who were brutally assassinated by the dictator Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. Two decades later, in 1981, this date was designated as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women at the first meeting of Latin American and Caribbean feminists (Feminist Encuentro) in Bogotá. The United Nations put it on the official agenda in 1999.

In an investigation initiated upon the complaint over the impossibility to register the change of sex done abroad into the registry books in Serbia, the Protector of Citizens identified omissions in the work of the competent authorities, the rectifying of which enabled the complainant to be issued a certificate of gender reassignment and register the reassignment of gender in the registry books in the relevant local service.

Upon receiving a complaint from our citizen residing abroad, the Protector of Citizens launched the investigation of controlling the work of the Cabinet for Transgender Conditions of the Clinic for Psychiatry of the Clinical Center of Serbia (CCS), which is in charge of issuing certificates of gender reassignment, as well as the work of the Republic Expert Commission for Transgender Conditions of the Ministry of Health.

At the Protector of Citizens’ request, the Inspection of the Ministry of Health in charge of controlling the work of health institutions found irregularities and ambiguities in the operation of the Cabinet for Transgender Conditions of the Clinic for Psychiatry of CCS and Republic Expert Commission for Transgender Conditions of the Ministry of Health during the implementation of the Rulebook on the manner of issuance and the form of the certificate of the competent healthcare institution on gender reassignment.

The inspection of the Ministry of Health informed the Protector of Citizens that it had taken all legally prescribed measures and that the competent health institution had issued and sent a certificate of gender reassignment to the competent registry office in Serbia.

In the past few months, attacks on journalists, especially female journalists, have not abated. Moreover, insults and mockery of journalists are even more frequent and more brutal, warning of growing intolerance, as well as the inability to establish a basic dialogue in a society, the Protector of Citizens Mr. Zoran Pašalić warns.

In yesterday's show "Hit tweet" on TV Pink, singer Mr. Aca Lukas kept insulting TV N1 journalist Ms. Žaklina Tatalović in the most primitive way, without being sharply warned by the show host that his words were impermissible and inappropriate for television appearance. In an attempt to be witty and funny, he vulgarly ridiculed Ms. Žaklina Tatalović and thus exhibited in practice a demonstration exercise of verbal violence, aware that he would not bear the consequences for such behavior; neither him, nor the author and host of the show "Hit Tweet", nor TV Pink broadcaster because in the already contaminated public speech, misogyny is taken for granted, so much so that we seldom publicly condemn the insults and threats that are directed at women, Mr. Pašalić states.

Through a series of meetings with representatives of media associations, the Protector of Citizens, following the example of the Council of Europe platform, initiated and established in Serbia a unique media platform for registering all attacks on journalists, as well as the reaction of competent state bodies. Verbal violence against female journalists has so far been at the very top of all attacks and this is the reason for it to continue being a special segment in the work of the media platform. The media platform will unequivocally make it known that these activities are impermissible and punishable in our society through registering the attacks, condemning them publically and imposing an appropriate sanction, Mr. Pašalić points out.

The Protector of Citizens urges state authorities and institutions to continuously provide conditions for the work of male and female journalists at their workplaces in every place and on every occasion. By consistently responding to all phenomena of violence and aggressive behavior, the state bodies and institutions, just like participants in the public space will contribute to calming anxiety and tensions in society.