On 9 May, the Director of Human Rights and representatives of the Execution Department participated in a roundtable in Belgrade on the execution of the ECHR judgment in the case of Zorica Jovanović concerning the authorities’ failure to provide persons concerned with credible information as to the fate of their new-born babies which had “gone missing” following their alleged death in hospital wards. The event provided the platform for a constructive exchange between judges engaged in the implementation of the 2020 law setting up the fact-finding mechanism in cases concerning “missing babies”.
The Director of Human Rights commended the authorities’ commitment to fully executing this judgment and noted the need to adopt promptly the foreseen amendments to the Law on National DNA Register setting up a “missing babies” database. The representative of the Department provided a comprehensive overview of the state of execution in this case, with a particular focus on the remaining challenges in the application of the above law.
The roundtable brought together representatives of the: Constitutional Court, Appellate and High Courts in Belgrade, Kragujevac, Niš and Novi Sad, Judicial Academy, Ministry of Interior, Ombudsman - Protector of Citizens, Republic Public Prosecutor's Office, State Attorney's Office, and Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia.
The roundtable was organised in the context of a cooperation programme on “Strengthening human right protection in Serbia”, part of the joint European Union and Council of Europe “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye 2023-2026”, implemented by the Council of Europe. The event was co-organised with the Judicial Academy of Serbia.
