This year’s recipient of the Konstantin Obradović Prize for contribution to the advancement of a human rights culture is Dr Milivoj Despot, a retired Military Supreme Court Judge and well-known expert on humanitarian law. The prize was established by the Belgrade Center for Human Rights to commemorate our founder and long-time deputy director Prof. Dr. Konstantin Obradović, one of the greatest Yugoslav and international experts on humanitarian law and an active campaigner for human rights causes in our country. Konstantin Obradović passed away on the 10th of March, 2000. So far the prize has been awarded to Predrag Koraksić (2000), and Svetlana Lukić and Svetlana Vuković (2001). (more…)

The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights reminds the authorities that there is an obligation of state organs to carry out urgent and efficient investigations into all cases of persons accused of felonies committed under suspicious circumstances. In accordance with international standards and national regulations, investigators have the obligation to conduct an urgent and efficient investigation irrespective whether the accused are private persons or officials. (more…)

Belgrade centre for human rights is of the opinion that USA attempt for signing separate agreements with the countries which signed Roman statute can endanger object of this contract and aim of the instauration of the International Criminal Court.  As Viena Convention on the Contract Law obliges State  on abstention of acts which would leave the contract signed by it (the State) without its object and purpose, contracting States of Roman Statute would break the object of the contract – instauration of the personal criminal liability for International crimes – accepting the agreement which USA offers. (more…)

The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights expresses its concern about the fact that journalists were taken in for questioning by the police. On 11 July, a journalist of the radio Free Europe and of the daily newspaper Danas, Nataša Odalović, and the editor of the Reporter magazine, Vladimir Radomirović, have received subpoenas issued by the district attorney, Rade Terzić, to come in for questioning to the police office in Belgrade. In both cases the police wanted to investigate the allegations made in the texts published by the two journalists. The Belgrade Centre recalls the similar behaviour of the investigation authorities in the last-year case of publishing a list of police officers that are allegedly suspects before the Hague Tribunal in the daily papers Blic and Reporter. (more…)

The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights protests against frequent assaults on the principle of judicial independence and autonomy in Serbia. These attacks seriously bring into question the sincerity of the declared resolve for genuine reform and the establishment of an independent judiciary. The Government’s and Prime Minister’s calls for the dismissal of errant judges, for stepping up proceedings, punishing the senior officials of the former regime and more efficient trials are, of course, justified. The manner in which these legitimate views have been expressed and the inappropriate approach of the Prime Minister and Justice Minister to dealing with alleged negligence and the slow pace of judicial reforms give, however, rise to concern.   (more…)

The Council and Senate of the University of Kent in Canterbury (GB) awarded BCHR Director Vojinu Dimitrijević the degree of Honorary Doctor of Law. Dr. Dimitrijević will be awarded the degree at a ceremony in the Canterbury Cathedral on 10 July 2002. Finnish President Tarja Hallonen and Oxford University Professor of Pharmacology Greenfield, famous for her treatment of Altzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases, will be awarded their honorary doctorates at the ceremony as well.