Monday, 25 June 2012

National Assembly Hosts Seminar on “Strengthening the Legislative and Control Capacities of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia”

As part of the National Assembly’s cooperation with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, with the support of the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM), and as part of the realisation of the programme “Strengthening the legislative and control capacities of the National Assembly”, today, the Assembly hosted a seminar on the aspect of human rights and rule of law in the legislative process, intended for the employees at the National Assembly’s Legislation Sector.


In the opening address, National Assembly Assistant Secretary General and Head of the Legislation Sector Mirjana Radakovic stressed that the Constitution guarantees and enables direct implementation of human and minority rights as warranted by generally accepted rules of international law, ratified international agreements and the law. Starting from this legislature, the National Assembly’s Rules of Procedure envisage a special Committee in charge of realising and protecting human rights and liberties – the Committee on Human and Minority Rights and Gender Equality, as well as the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Furthermore, she stressed that, every day, the National Assembly and its working bodies receive numerous petitions and proposals from various associations, civic groups and individuals the answers to which are prepared by the competent committees or the Cabinet of the National Assembly Speaker. The National Assembly has ratified numerous international conventions and agreements, making the rights and duties regulated by said agreements component part of Serbian legislation.
Independent consultant Nuala Quinn presented the Guidelines for Harmonisation of Regulations with International Standards of Human Rights and Rule of Law prepared by YUCOM as part of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy programme “Strengthening the legislative and control capacities of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia”. She said that the Guidelines, intended for the employees of the National Assembly Service, aim to improve the regulation drafting skills in the areas of human and minority rights protection.
Ivana Krstic, docent at the Belgrade Faculty of Law, presented the Guidelines on the Protection of Migrants’ Rights in the Republic of Serbia intended for civil servants and local self-government officers. She spoke of international standards in the sphere of migration management and mentioned the most important international human rights protection instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She underlined the importance of the supervision over the implementation of the obligations assumed, by United Nations committees.
The second part of the seminar focused on a discussion on the Migration Management Bill which the Government had forwarded into Assembly procedure earlier this year. The participants analysed the provisions of the Bill, commented on its structure and content, sharing proposals on the use of uniform terminology and application of the formula for human and minority rights protection standards. In the course of the discussion the employees made suggestions on how to improve the proposed Bill.
In addition to the employees of the National Assembly Service, for whom the seminar was intended, representatives of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, YUCOM, Commissariat for Refugees of the Republic of Serbia and International Organisation for Migration also took part in the discussion.



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thursday, 28 march
  • 9.00 - consultations of representatives of the parliamentary groups about the election of deputy chairpersons of the National Assembly working bodies (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, hall 1)

  • 10.00 - visit of the students of Stevan Dukic Elementary School to the National Assembly House (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square)

  • 11.00 - visit of the students of Drinka Pavlovic Elementary School Student Parliament to the National Assembly House (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square)

  • 11.00 - press conference of the Green-Left Front – Don’t Let Belgrade D(r)оwn Parliamentary Group (National Assembly House 13, Nikola Pasic Square. Central Hall)

  • 13.00 - the National Assembly Speaker meets with the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the Republic of Serbia (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, Speaker’s Cabinet)

Full event calendar