On 19 March, the Department for the Execution of Judgments participated online in a round table organised in Belgrade on the execution of judgments of the European Court in relation to Serbia concerning ill-treatment by police officers during questioning and ineffective investigations into such allegations (Stanimirović v. Serbia group).
The meeting focused on the general measures foreseen or already taken by the domestic authorities in response to the decisions adopted by the Committee of Ministers at its Human Rights meeting in December 2022. The Committee will examine this group again at its next Human Rights meeting in June. The representative of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) gave an overview of the main findings and recommendations from the recently published CPT report of its ad hoc visit to Serbia in March 2023.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the State Public Prosecutor, the Ministry of Interior (the Internal Affairs Sector and the Commission for the Implementation of Standards of Police Treatment in the Field of Torture Prevention), the Ministry of Justice (the Department for Execution of Criminal Sanctions, the Department for the Protection of Human Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty and the Department for Finance and Administration) as well as the Ombudsman. The Government Agent of Serbia before the European Court presented information on the measures taken at domestic level to execute this group of cases. At the same time, she higlighted outstanding information necessary for the finalisaton of an updated group action plan and called for further cooperation between all relevant authorities in this respect.
The event was organised in the context of cooperation actions “Strengthening human right protection in Serbia” and “Enhancing the human rights protection for detained and sentenced persons in Serbia”, parts of the joint European Union and Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye”, implemented by the Council of Europe.
