The Committee on Petitions and Proposals organised a public hearing on 14 April at the Small Hall of the National Assembly House on the “Cooperation between the National Assembly’s Committee on Petitions and Proposals and local self-government commissions i.e. working bodies dealing with similar matters”.

The meeting was attended by representatives of local commissions and working bodies from all around Serbia, representatives of independent and autonomous state authorities, regulatory bodies, as well as representatives of the non-governmental sector in charge of civic proposals, petitions and appeals.

The gathering was opened by Sasa Dujovic, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee on Petitions and Proposals, and the participants of the public hearing were greeted by National Assembly Speaker Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic.

Afterwards, the participants were addressed by Thomas Moore, Deputy Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, Sasa Dujovic, Chairman of the Committee on Petitions and Proposals and Milan Antonijevic, Director of the YUCOM Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights.

Milan Djukic, Chairman of the AP Vojvodina Assembly’s Committee on Petitions and Proposals, Nevena Petrusic, Equality Commissioner, Miodrag Skundric, Advisor at the Anti-Corruption Agency Analytics Sector, Gordana Stevanovic, the Ombudsman’s Assistant Secretary General and Djordje Stanicic, Secretary General of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities also addressed the gathering.

Representatives of local commissions and working bodies in charge of civic petitions and proposals took part in the discussion at the end of which they adopted the following

CONCLUSIONS

1. The Republic of Serbia has the appropriate forms of organisation on all the levels of government as well as the general social community, which adequately enable the citizens to exercise their right, guaranteed by the Constitution, to address the authorities on issues they consider important for the exercise of their rights and interests;

2. The current experience as well as results in the sphere of civic right to initiate, petition, propose and appeal can be evaluated as basically positive. However, this fact also points out the need to undertake further activities in both the normative and sphere of direct action primarily by state bodies, as well as other subjects who deal with the exercise of the basic civic right i.e. the citizens’ right to address a state body in order to appeal for the realisation of their rights and interests. All of this should increase the citizens’ trust primarily in the government institutions, as well as strengthen the citizens’ position as a more active factor in the creation and implementation of public policy;

3. In the upcoming period, with the help of the OSCE, the Committee on Petitions and Proposals will organise public hearings on specific topics it deems current and particularly significant for the Committee’s competence, and ultimately the authority of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.