17 Aug Serbian draft law on free legal aid limits the right of access to justice
Civil society organizations have expressed concern about the solutions contained in the Draft Law on Free Legal Aid.
The Law on Free Legal Aid has been pending for more than 12 years. During this time, lawyers and attorneys at law engaged in civil society organizations provided free legal aid. The solutions from the current Draft significantly deviate from the solutions that, in accordance with their many years of experience, were proposed by free legal aid providers.
The Ministry of Justice has published the latest Draft Law, and has announced that it had corrected the text and edited it in accordance with the submitted remarks. However, the most important remarks submitted civil organizations listed below as decade-long providers of free legal aid were not respected. This primarily relates to the limited possibilities of legal aid provision by lawyers and attorneys at law engaged with the CSOs, who have performed this activity, in absence of an adequate law, for the last 20 years. The Draft Law limits CSOs to provide free legal aid only on the basis of the Law on Asylum and The Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination. Concurrently, it neglects other laws.
It means that only attorneys at law can provide all types of free legal aid. The question is will attorneys at law be able to respond to all the needs of free legal aid seekers? Instead of giving the state responsibility for providing free legal aid in order to help the citizens of Serbia, the Ministry of Justice presents a Draft Law that will not be economically viable.
In this way, citizens who are in need of legal assistance are negatively affected. The reason being that the Draft Law ties the property census with the right to free legal aid by equalizing it with the census for social assistance and the right to child allowance. This being said, all those who do not fall into this category, or some of the categories separately prescribed by law, shall be denied this type of assistance.
It is unacceptable that a law which aims to enable an equal access to justice for vulnerable groups of citizens, such as the Law on Free Legal Aid, limits this right by derogating existing legal solutions and recognizing the right to free legal aid to a very limited circle of persons. In doing so, it denies the assistance being provided by lawyers in CSOs who have been doing this work for years.
Here you can find the draft law on free legal:
https://www.paragraf.rs/dnevne-vesti/180117/180117-vest15.html
This statement is undersigned by:
The Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM)
Civic Initiatives
Belgrade Centre for Human Rights
Policy Centre
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights
Autonomous Women’s Centre – AŽC
Child Rights Centre
International Aid Network – IAN
Network of the Committees for Human Rights in Serbia CHRIS consisting of:
– Committee for Human Rights Negotin
– Committee for Human Rights Valjevo
– Committee for Human Rights Bujanovac
– Civic Forum Novi Pazar
– Committee for Human Rights Nis
Praxis
Urban-In
Citizen’s Association FemPlatz
Atina
A 11 – Initiative for Economic and Social Rights
Sandžak Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms
Dijalog.net
Association DUGA
CRTA
European Policy Centre – CEP
Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina (IJAV)
Women Support Center – Sos Vojvodina Network
Western Balkans Institute
Initiative for development and cooperation
Gayten-LGBT
Committee for Human Rights Vranje – SOS Telephone Vranje
Association of Women Peščanik
Centre for Human Rights-Niš
Committee for Human Rights Leskovac
Humanitarian Centre for Integration and Tolerance
Counseling Against Family Violence
Women’s centre Užice
Humanitarian Law Centre – HLC
NGO ASTRA – Anti-trafficking Action
Non-Smoking Educational Centre RP
Help children
Belgrade Centre for Security Policy
Roma Forum of Serbia
Association of Roma Branicevo District
Centre for Moms
SHARE
References from the official website of the Praxis