It is with deepest regret that the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights announces the passing of Vojin Dimitrijević (81), our beloved colleague and Director, in Belgrade today. Vojin Dimitrijević managed the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights since he established it in 1995. He was a member of the Venice Commission, the International Commission of Jurists, a judge at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, a member of the Governing Board of the Association of Human Rights Institutes (AHRI) and a member of the Serbian PEN Centre. Vojin Dimitrijević was a full-time Professor of International Public Law and International Relations and the Belgrade University Law School until 1998, when he was dismissed because he opposed the new University Act of the Republic of Serbia and protested against the dismissals of his colleagues pursuant to that Act.
He was Doctor of Law honoris causa, McGill University, Montreal, and of University of Kent at Canterbury, and Chevalier, Légion d’honneur of the French Republic. From 2005, professor Dimitrijevic thaught at the Union University Law School in Belgrade.
He was a member, rapporteur and Vice-Chairman of the UN Human Rights Committee. He, inter alia, served as an ad hoc judge of the International Court of Justice, Chairman of the Yugoslav Forum for Human Rights, Chairman of the Yugoslav International Law Association, member of the Anti-Corruption Council and Chairman of the European Movement in Serbia. He authored and co-authored a number of textbooks and books, as well as a large number of articles. His books, Terrorism, Reign of Terror, Descent from Reason and International Human Rights Law, were published in several editions. He was also a member of the Presidency of the Civic Alliance of Serbia.
Vojin Dimitrijević was one of the most fervent and persistent human rights defenders in Serbia. To us, who worked with him, he was a driving force, a mainstay, an inspiration. But, above all, he was a friend. It was a great honour and a privilege to work with him.
For us, nothing will ever be the same.
