1,500 complaints lodged before the Court in Strasbourg in past three years
Expired1,500 COMPLAINTS LODGED BEFORE the Court in Strasbourg in past three years
The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance Rodoljub Sabic said yesterday that Serbian citizens have lodged over 1,500 complaints before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in the past three years, which shows that all that needs to be done on institutional and normative levels has not been done yet.
In the written statement transmitted by Srna, given on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Ratification of European Convention on Human Rights Act coming into force, Sabic points out that, on the institutional level, it would be imperative to activate the Constitutional Court and Ombudsman immediately after the elections in Serbia.
Sabic says that, on the normative level, supervision of the media by the government and threatening public criticism with criminal accountability should be completely banned by the law.
„On the normative level, preconditions for the enforcement of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights should be ensured and barriers that obstruct the access to information of public importance should be eliminated and demystified“, says Sabic.
He emphasizes that it will take time for this normative deficit to be eliminated and that it is therefore important that public authorities, with the direct application of the Convention whenever it is possible, remove any repercussions.
„It is necessary to work more, and to work more seriously and continually on educating civil servants in European standards on human rights, especially about viewpoints expressed through the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, as the basis for interpreting the provisions of the Convention”, says Sabic.
Antrfile: Convention on Human Rights
Sabic reminds us that the ratification of the Convention on Human Rights presupposes citizens' right to quote the Convention before domestic courts and other government bodies and request its direct application, as well as that the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is the highest level of jurisdiction in the protection of human rights.
„As regards freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of the media, freedom to receive and distribute information and freedom to access information that is in the possession of the authorities, cases in which the Convention is directly applied are extremely rare,” adds Sabic.
