The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights condemns the abuse of a Roma boy by members of the police force in a police station in Vršac and calls for the competent institutions, above all, the prosecution and court, to undertake the measures envisaged by law and adequately punish the perpetrators of this criminal act. The Belgrade Centre reiterates that the state is not doing enough to prevent and punish torture and other methods of abuse. The sentences envisaged by the Criminal Code for these acts are inappropriately lenient, as is the sentencing policy of courts. Additionally, proceedings against perpetrators that encompass an element of abuse are rare and inefficient, so that perpetrators are most often unpunished.On the other hand, the state is not doing enough to prevent abuse. Serbia ratified the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture five years ago and thus committed itself to establishing a National Preventive Mechanism within a year – a professional body that is authorized to visit unannounced all places where persons deprived of their liberty are kept or may be kept (police stations, prisons, psychiatric hospitals, social institutions, military detention facilities, shelters for foreigners, facilities for detention at border crossings etc) and monitor the behaviour of officials. However, the Mechanism has not yet been established.
The Belgrade Centre calls on the government of Serbia and all competent ministries to render all facilities where persons deprived of their liberty are found, or may be found, as transparent to the public as possible in the aim of preventing all forms of torture. In particular, any attempts to conceal cases of torture or abuse should be promptly and strictly punished. It is especially important that doctors employed by such institutions and doctors who examine persons with injuries that may be the result of abuse inform competent institutions of any findings which suggest possible cases of abuse.
Finally, the Belgrade Centre advises people who are victims of abuse to contact a doctor or competent state institutions without delay, or, if they do not have confidence in them, the Ombudsman or civil society organisations, for this is the best way to prove abuse and to bring the perpetrator to justice.
