CSOs OPEN LETTER
With regard to the completion of the constitutional amendment process the Justice Ministry of the Republic of Serbia has been conducting, the Judges’ Association of Serbia1 , the Association of Public Prosecutors and Deputy Public Prosecutors of Serbia2 , the Judicial Research Centre – CEPRIS3 , the Association of Judicial and Prosecutorial Assistants of Serbia4 , the Association of Judicial Associates of Serbia5 , the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM6 and the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights7 are issuing the following
OPEN LETTER
To:
The National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia
The Government of the Republic of Serbia, and
The Justice Ministry of the Republic of Serbia
Aware of the importance of amending the constitutional provisions governing the judiciary, we responded to the Justice Ministry’s invitation and took part in the so-called consultative process on amending the Serbian Constitution, which was launched in mid-2017. The debate should have focused on –the establishment of judicial independence – had been disregarded from the very start of the process. The process did not have the character of a public debate and did not enable its participants to engage in genuine consultations – there was no text to be discussed, judicial authorities and law school professors were not involved in the process, and the discussions were characterised by open disparagement of individual participants, especially judges and prosecutors, by the representatives of the Justice Ministry. In light of the circumstances, we withdrew from the consultative process on 30 November 2017 and notified the Justice Ministry and the domestic and international public of our reasons for doing so in detail.
- Comments of Judges’ Association of Serbia on the Working Draft of Amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia
- Ustavni sud razmatra sporazum Beograda i Prištine