Investigations

The Protector of Citizens identified shortcomings in the work of the City Centre for Social Work in Belgrade – Zvezdara and Palilula departments, in the case of the child whose father kept her in isolation in an apartment in poor hygienic conditions in the Belgrade neighborhood of Mirijevo, and requested this authority to inform it within 15 days on the determination of responsibility of the heads of these departments and all the professionals who worked on this case.

Also, during the procedure, the Protector of Citizens identified systemic shortcomings in the Law on the Foundations of the System of Education and Upbringing and asked the Ministry of Education to propose changes to this and the relevant provisions of special laws in the area of preschool and elementary education, which refer to the obligation to keep records of children who are old enough to attend the preschool program and to enroll in the first grade of elementary school.

A month ago, based on the reports from the media that in Mirijevo, a father had neglected his child for years, keeping her in complete isolation in an apartment in poor hygienic conditions, the Protector of Citizens launched an own-initiative investigation  to control the legality and regularity of work of the City Centre for Social Work in Belgrade – Zvezdara and Palilula departments, Ministry of Family Welfare and Demography, Ministry of Interior, Healthcare Centre Zvezdara, Healthcare Centre Palilula and the City Municipality of Zvezdara. Subsequently, control investigations were launched against the Secretariat for Education and Child Protection and the Secretariat for Administration of the City Administration of the City of Belgrade and the Ministry of Education, and direct supervision over their work was carried out, as well a control investigation into work of the Savski Venac Healthcare Centre.

In the course of the procedure, a meeting was held with representatives of the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, and by means of an act of cooperation, information was requested from the First Basic Court in Belgrade about the proceedings conducted before that court, which concern the family-legal protection of the child, as well as copies of legally binding court decisions with which those proceedings ended.

The Protector of Citizens, on his own initiative, and based on reports from the media that a nurse employed by GAK "Narodni Front" live-streamed childbirth on the Tik-Tok social network, as well that, since June last year, she has been sharing videos and photos from the delivery room, launched a control investigation into the legality and regularity of work of this health care institution and the Health Inspection Department of the Ministry of Health.

The Protector of Citizens requested from GAK "Narodni Front" to inform him within 15 days about all the circumstances of this case, as well as whether activities have been undertaken to determine whether the nurse also published recordings in the period before the live transmission of the childbirth, as a result of which disciplinary proceedings were initiated against her and she was suspended from work, as well as whether appropriate measures and actions available to the employer were accordingly taken.

The Protector of Citizens asked the Ministry of Health, Department for Inspection Affairs – Health Inspection Department, to inform him within the same period about all the circumstances of this case, the actions that have been taken in the meantime, and especially whether they have undertaken measures to initiate misdemeanour proceedings against the nurse who published the recordings from the delivery room, based on the Law on the Rights of Patients, due to violation of the right to privacy and confidentiality.

The Protector of Citizens identified shortcomings in the work of the social protection authorities and the competent inspection of the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs regarding the case in which, in early January 2023, in the "Bežanijska kosa" nursing home, according to media reports, one beneficiary took the life of another, and requested a review of the work of the commission that decided on the admission of that beneficiary.

On 11th January 2023, after learning from the media that a beneficiary of the services of the Gerontological Centre Belgrade, department "Bežanijska kosa" home in Zemun, killed another beneficiary housed in that institution, the Protector of Citizens launched an own-initiative investigation to assess the legality and regularity of work of the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, the Centre for Social Work in Stara Pazova and the mentioned gerontological centre.

The Protector of Citizens established that the "Bežanijska kosa" Home made a mistake in its work because it admitted a beneficiary to that institution, who, according to the media reports, took the life of another beneficiary, without complete documentation, i.e. without a health certificate. This shortcoming of the social protection authority was not determined by the Social Protection Inspection of the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs during the extraordinary supervision over the work of the "Bežanijska Kosa" Home.

The Protector of Citizens also established that information on the health condition of the beneficiary who, according to the media reports, took the life of another beneficiary, were not known to the Stara Pazova CSW during the initial evaluation of the beneficiary, nor to the Gerontological Centre Belgrade - "Bežanijska kosa" Home when he was admitted. The doctor's findings and opinion for this beneficiary, which his relative subsequently submitted to the "Bežanijska kosa" home only after his admission to the home, show that his health condition represented a contraindication for placement in an institution for adults and the elderly, and based on such a health condition, he could not have been placed in the nursing home on Bežanijska kosa if that institution had possessed information about his health at the time of admission.

After learning from the media about the case of the murder of a woman in the vicinity of Leskovac and the attempted murder of a woman in the vicinity of Žitište, in which the perpetrators were their current and former emotional partners, the Protector of Citizens launched separate own-initiative investigations to control the legality and regularity of work of the competent authorities. 

Based on media reports that a man from the village of Jarsenovo near Leskovac was arrested on suspicion of murdering his common-law wife, the Protector of Citizens launched an investigation to control the work of the Leskovac City Centre for Social Work and the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia.

The Protector of Citizens asked the Leskovac CSW to inform him within 15 days at the latest whether and on what basis these extramarital partners were on the records of the centre, whether there were reports of violence in the past period, whether and when those reports were considered at the Coordination and Cooperation Group, with special reference to the measures and actions that the Centre, in cooperation with other authorities, may have undertaken in order to provide adequate support and protection to the victim of partner violence. The Protector of Citizens requested from the MoI to inform him within the same period about the actions of the competent police administration in the specific case, with special reference to the activities carried out in this case and the cooperation achieved with the CSW, the prosecution and other authorities on earlier reports of partner violence, if any had been submitted.

On the occasion of the attempted murder of a woman in a village near Žitište, when her ex-common-law partner shot her in the chest with a rifle, after which she was operated on in the Zrenjanin hospital, the Protector of Citizens launched investigations to control the legality and regularity of work of the Centre for Social Work Žitište, Žitište Health Care Centre, the Provincial Secretariat for Social Policy, Demography and Gender Equality and the Ministry of Interior – Police Administration Zrenjanin.

The Protector of Citizens requested from the CSW Žitište to inform him within 15 days about all the circumstances of this case, whether there were previous reports of domestic violence and, if so, what measures did the Centre undertake, in cooperation with other competent authorities, in order to provide support to the victim of domestic violence and her children, to protect them, to sanction the perpetrator and to influence him not to commit violence again.

At the same time, the Protector of Citizens requested the Provincial Secretariat for Social Policy, Demography and Gender Equality to carry out expert supervision over the work of the CSW Zitište in this case, as well as to inform him of the measures the Secretariat undertook after learning about this case and the future measures it planned to take.

The Protector of Citizens asked the Zrenjanin police to inform him within 15 days whether there were previous reports of violence in this family and, if so, what measures did the police undertake, in cooperation with other competent authorities, in order to protect the victim of violence in the family and her children and sanction the perpetrator, as well as whether the perpetrator had a weapon in legal possession and what measures the police undertook after learning about this case.

The Protector of Citizens asked the Žitište Health Care Centre to inform him within the same deadline about whether it had knowledge of domestic violence and, if this is the case, what measures did the Žitište Health Care Centre undertake, in cooperation with other authorities, in order to provide support and protection to the victim and sanction the perpetrator.

The Protector of Citizens, Zoran Pašalić, asked the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue to inform him whether it has prepared by-laws that would enable the implementation of the Law on Gender Equality, which, among other things, stipulates that a person who is not health insured on any other basis, acquires that right on the basis of unpaid domestic work.

In a letter to the competent ministry, Pašalić reminded that the Law on Gender Equality, which entered into force on 1 June 2021, stipulates that by-laws for the implementation of this law are passed within one year from the date of entry into force of the law.

The Protector of Citizens asked the relevant ministry, which supervises the implementation of this law, to inform him within 15 days of the measures it has taken independently and in cooperation with other competent authorities in order to enable the application of legal provisions in practice.

Pašalić reminds that according to the Law on Gender Equality, persons who are not health insured on any other basis, acquire that right on the basis of unpaid domestic work (running a household, taking care of raising children, taking care of other family members, unpaid work on an agricultural estate, etc.).

The Protector of Citizens, in an own-initiative investigation, launched based on information from the media that at the beginning of June this year, a father, a foreign citizen, forcibly took his children and took them to a neighboring country, identified shortcomings in the work of the City Centre for Social Work in Belgrade, as it did not act according to the international convention.

On the occasion of allegations in the media that with the first-instance decision of our court the children were entrusted to the mother, but also that the mother violated the previous decision of the court in Switzerland because she brought the children to Serbia, the Protector of Citizens launched an investigation into the regularity and legality of work of the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior and the City Centre for Social Work in Belgrade.

During the control investigation, the Protector of Citizens determined, among other things, that the City Centre for Social Work in Belgrade made an omission in its work because it did not apply the appropriate regulation in the specific case – the Hague Convention on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of foreign court decisions and cooperation in respect of parental responsibility and measures for the protection of children.

Namely, in the investigation, it was determined that the family lived in Switzerland, that the Swiss court decided during the divorce to place the children under the sole custody of the father, with the place of residence at his address, but also that the mother, in April 2021, without his knowledge, brought the children to Serbia and that in the same month, she filed a lawsuit for divorce in our court.

The Protector of Citizens also established in the investigation that the father of the children, who is a Croatian citizen, informed the competent court in Belgrade in January 2022 that the divorce was decided by a court in Switzerland, that he filed a criminal complaint against the mother of the children for taking away the children, and that he had previously reported the mother for violence, which is why he stayed with the children in a safe house for men  in Switzerland – from July to December 2020.

In this case, the Ministry of Family Welfare and Demography performed supervision of the professional work of this Belgrade Centre, during which it was determined that the Centre did not act in accordance with the standards of professional work, because it did not timely and comprehensively assess the condition, needs and risks for all family members, the Protector of Citizens states.

The relevant ministry stated in the supervision report that the mother illegally kept the children in Serbia in April 2021, that in this particular case, the authority to decide on parental responsibility, even after the illegal removal of children, should have been retained by the authority in Switzerland and that there were no grounds for the guardianship authority to act and provide findings and an expert opinion.

The Protector of Citizens was informed that, according to the opinion of the competent ministry, the said omission resulted in an unjustified prolonged stay of children in the safe house with a parent to whom children were not entrusted as part of independent exercise of parental rights.

The Ministry ordered the City Centre for Social Work in Belgrade to initiate procedures for determining the disciplinary responsibility of employees who were involved in work on this case, but also to inform all employees of the Centre about the report of the competent ministry, in order to prevent the repetition of similar omissions in the future, the Protector of Citizens determined.

The Protector of Citizens launched a control investigation in order to assess the legality and regularity of work of the "Miloje Vasić" Elementary School in Kaluđerica, after learning from the media that peer violence had occurred in that school, in which a group of students from older classes physically assaulted a boy in the first grade.

The Protector of Citizens asked the school's administration to submit a report within 15 days on the activities undertaken within the jurisdiction of the institution, undertaken in connection with the aforementioned findings, in order to protect the rights and best interests of the students. Also, the school administration should provide information on whether such situations in which those same students from older classes took part had happened before and, if so, what measures the school undertook in those cases.

The Protector of Citizens, on his own initiative, and based on information from the media about the existence of suspicion that a seventeen-year-old man from Alibunar beat and raped his seventy-one-year-old grandmother, who was his guardian, in the family home last weekend, launched a control investigation in order to assess the legality and regularity of work of the Centre for Social Work in Alibunar. An investigation was also launched against the Provincial Secretariat for Social Policy, Demography and Gender Equality and the Ministry of Interior – PD for the city of Pančevo – PS Alibunar.

The Protector of Citizens asked the CSW Alibunar to inform him about all the circumstances of the case and about what measures the centre was taking in particular to protect the victim, given that, according to the media, the victim reported her grandson's violent behaviour two weeks earlier and asked for help from the centre.

Furthermore, it is necessary for the Provincial Secretariat for Social Policy, Demography and Gender Equality to carry out expert supervision over the work of the guardianship authority in this case. Information was requested from the MoI whether there had been previous reports of violence in that family and what measures the police had taken to protect the victims of violence, as well as what measures they took after learning about the case.

The Protector of Citizens has given a deadline of 15 days for the statements of the controlled authorities.