On 28 February, the Department for the Execution of Judgments participated in the Roundtable in Belgrade on execution of ECHR judgments against Serbia with particular focus on Dragan Petrović concerning unlawful taking of DNA data in criminal proceedings.
The representative of the Department provided an overview of the Committee of Ministers’ practice in the execution of ECHR judgments concerning collection and use of personal data (cf. Thematic Factsheet on Personal Data Protection). The participants agreed that the law relating to taking of DNA data in the context of criminal proceedings has already been aligned with the European Convention as recognised by the European Court in the above judgment. However, in order to fully execute this judgment, the Ministry of Interior should rapidly proceed with the deletion of the applicant’s DNA profile so that he no longer suffers consequences of the violation found by the Court.
The roundtable brought together representatives of the: Constitutional Court, Supreme Court of Cassation, Basic Court in Subotica, the Republic Public Prosecutor’s Office, State Prosecutorial Council, State Attorney’s Office as well as Delegation of the European Union to Serbia.
The roundtable was organised within the action “Strengthening the effective legal remedies to human rights violations in Serbia”, part of the joint European Union and Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye 2019-2022”, implemented by the Council of Europe.
Thematic factsheet on data protection
