The 450 pages Report on the Human Rights Situation in 2001 in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was drafted by the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights in order to offer to the Yugoslav and foreign public a survey of the actual exercise and enjoyment of the internationally-guaranteed human rights in the FRY. The Centre’s aim was to look into as many forms as possible of the exercise, enjoyment, legal regulation, limitation and violation of human rights and the most important factors influencing them.This is the fourth in a series of reports on human rights published by the Centre since 1998. It can be perused with reference to the other three, especially if the reader wishes to investigate the origins of the latest events and compare the situation with that before the changes which took place in 2000.
The report is divided into four sections.
The first section describes and analyses the constitutional, legal and sub-legal regulations dealing with human rights, and compares them with international standards and the obligations of the FRY under international treaties. This section is based on the comprehensive data collected by the Centre.
Section two deals with the practical exercise of human rights in the FRY. Providing a fully accurate view meant that the Centre did not rely only on its own research, but also systematically covered the Yugoslav media and collected all available reports issued by relevant human rights organisations in and outside the country, government-run or NGOs. The abundance of data, often conflicting, did not always allow the Centre to assume definite conclusions, but all reports and their sources have been conveyed in full, giving readers a basis for reaching their own conclusions.
Late in 2001, the Centre followed up on its 1998 and 2000 reports and conducted its third survey of legal consciousness in the FRY on a large sample of respondents; the findings are given in section three.
A comprehensive and thorough annual report on the human rights situation in the FRY cannot be drafted without pointing to the broader issues affecting human rights. Section four therefore includes overviews of the problems seen as the most important in this regard: the sutuation in Kosovo, the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the status of refugees and efforts to establish truth and reconciliation in the FRY and the entire former Yugoslavia region.
Publishing of the book was supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany (Stability Pact Fund).
If You would like to read the Human Rights in FRY – A Comprehensive Report for 2001 (in Serbian and English), 2002.
