Back Improved capacities of public prosecutors to implement European Court of Human Rights standards in their decisions

Improved capacities of public prosecutors to implement European Court of Human Rights standards in their decisions

The first of four planned meetings for public prosecutors on how to refer to standards and case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in prosecutorial acts and on proper ways to quote ECtHR decisions, took place in Belgrade on 24 April. The meetings are organised by the joint European Union and Council of Europe action „Strengthening human rights protection in Serbia“ in co-operation with the Judicial Academy and Supreme Public Prosecution Office. The  aim of these meetings is to improve capacities of public prosecutors to apply case-law of the European Court of Human Rights in their day-to-day work.

Judicial Academy Director Nenad Vujić highlighted in his introductory speech the importance of referring to the ECtHR case-law in prosecutors’ daily work. He also noted that in 2018 the National Network of Judges and Prosecutors for Implementation of ECtHR standards was established with the aim to create a pool of experts among judges and prosecutors who could be focal points for ECtHR case-law for their peers. Vujić invited interested prosecutors to take part in Network’s activities.

Public prosecutor Jasmina Stanković from the Supreme Public Prosecution Office stated that meetings such as these are beneficial for prosecutors as they enable them to learn how to quote specific opinions or standards of the ECtHR and how to apply them to the cases they work on.

Through presentation of the Council of Europe’s consultant Vesna Ćorić public prosecutors had the opportunity to learn about main findings of the ECtHR relevant for their work. Prosecutor Jasmina Stanković and Judge Vesna Filipović from the Appellate Court in Belgrade presented to participants proper ways to quote ECtHR decisions in domestic legal acts, while representatives of the Judicial Academy Biljana Stepanović and Aleksandar Stojanović presented to participants legal databases of the Judicial Academy Е-juris and Cross-reference, which enable access to a large number of relevant ECtHR decision in Serbian language.

The meetings are part of the years long efforts of the action „Strengthening human rights protection in Serbia“ to strengthen capacities of domestic institutions to implement the European Convention on Human Rights at domestic level. In this cycle meetings for public prosecutors from the territories of all four appellate seats will be organised. Apart from the meeting in Belgrade, the meetings will also take place on 25 April in Novi Sad, 16 May in Kragujevac and 17 May in Niš.

The action is a part of the joint programme of the European Union and the Council of Europe „Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye“, implemented by the Council of Europe.

Belgrade 24 April 2024
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The action “Strengthening human rights protection in Serbia” is designed to facilitate and contribute to the protection of human rights in Serbia by and before domestic judicial authorities in line with European human rights standards.

This action is implemented within the joint programme of the European Union and the Council of Europe “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye” running from 2023 until 2026.

 

What is the goal and objective of the action?

The main objective of the action is to ensure that right-holders in Serbia enjoy their rights in line with the European human rights standards and benefit from high-quality service of the judicial system.

 

Who benefits from the action?

  • Judiciary and future legal professionals in Serbia will benefit from the action by having access to training and resources that improve their ability to handle human rights related cases and execute the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
  • People of Serbia will benefit from the action by having their human rights better protected at the domestic level.
  • Judicial Academy, Government Agent before the European Court of Human Rights, Law Faculties, Ministry of Justice, the Constitutional Court, The Supreme Court of Cassation Republic Public Prosecutor’s Office and Ministry of European Integration, will benefits from the action by having access to the Council of Europe expertise and being supported in their institutional/administrative capacity building activities.

 

How does the action work?

  • through conferences/capacity building activities/round tables/placements to strengthen the knowledge of (future) legal professionals
  • by facilitating dialogue among the judiciary and other stakeholders for the purpose of more coherent implementation of the standards set out by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) at the domestic level
  • through streamlining the process of the execution of ECtHR judgments, the action will involve capacity-building activities, experts' legislative assessments and awareness-raising activities focusing on the execution process and its importance in the domestic human rights protection
  • the action builds on the best practices and results of co-operation under previous two phases of the programme: action “Supporting effective remedies and mutual legal assistance in Serbia” (2016 – 2019) and “Strengthening the effective legal remedies to human rights violations in Serbia” (2019 – 2022)

 

What do we expect to achieve?

  • the mechanism for the execution of the ECtHR judgements in relation to Serbia is strengthened, as well as the position of the Government’s Agent before the ECtHR as de facto co-ordinator of the execution process at the domestic level
  • the capacity of legal (future) professionals to protect and promote human rights by applying the ECHR provisions and the ECtHR case-law in their daily work is reinforced

 

What is the budget of the action?

The total budget of the action is 1 000 000 EUR.

The budget allocated to the overall Horizontal Facility programme amounts to ca. 41 million EUR (85% funded by the European Union, 15% by the Council of Europe).

 

How to get more information?

 

About Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye

The “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye” is a joint initiative of the European Union and the Council of Europe that enables the Western Balkans Beneficiaries and Türkiye to meet their reform agendas in the fields of human rights, rule of law and democracy and to comply with the European standards, which is also a priority for the EU enlargement process.