The seminar aims to showcase and build on the practice of parliamentary engagement on human rights and parliamentary involvement in the work of UN human rights mechanisms, including the Universal Periodic Review and the reports to the UN treaty bodies. The seminar will address the steps that parliaments can take to promote the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as provide an opportunity to discuss and review the draft international principles in support of the work of parliamentary human rights committees.

Olena Papuga spoke about the National Assembly’s latest legislative activities concerning human rights and the protection of national minority rights, and with it the amendments to the Bill amending and modifying the Law on Protection of Rights and Freedoms of National Minorities and the Bill on Official Use of Languages and Scripts which secure the right of national minorities to address the National Assembly in their native language and script. She also presented the activities of the Women’s Parliamentary Network on incorporating gender-responsive budgeting into the budget of the Republic of Serbia. She spoke about the inclusion of MPs into the Serbian state delegation in the presentation of periodic reviews to the competent UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the activities of the Committee on Human and Minority Rights and Gender Equality as regards the recommendations Serbia got in the Universal Periodic Review.

The participants emphasized the need for the parliaments to become involved in the different stages of the reporting procedures of the UN Human Rights Council and the UN treaty bodies, and to improve the interaction between parliaments and other national human rights stakeholders, in particular the executive, national human rights institutions and civil society.