At the sitting held on 17 December, the members of the Committee on Human and Minority Rights and Gender Equality considered the Ombudsman’s 2019 Regular Annual Report.
The Ombudsman’s 2019 Regular Annual Report was presented by Ombudsman Zoran Pasalic. He said that the Report provides a general assessment of the exercise of citizens' rights in 2019, Ombudsman’s recommendations, opinions and legislative initiatives, as well as exercise of rights of particularly vulnerable groups, children, LGBT people, people with disabilities and the elderly, minorities, and the national torture prevention mechanism. The Report also covers people’s civil, economic/property and social and cultural rights.
He stressed that last year was full of challenges for the Ombudsman as an independent state body tasked with protecting the rights of citizens and controlling the work of state administration bodies, bodies responsible for the protection of property rights and interests of the Republic of Serbia, as well as all other bodies and organizations, companies and institutions entrusted with public authorities. According to the Report, in 2019, the Ombudsman was addressed by around 11,000 citizens and the body received more than 3,000 complaints of civil rights violations. Complaints of rights violations in the economic and property domain, good governance and social and cultural rights emerged as dominant.
Pasalic emphasized that the announced adoption of a law introducing a new independent institution – Protector of the Rights of the Child, was a matter of special interest, despite the Ombudsman’s exceptional achievements in the field.
The Committee adopted the Ombudsman’s 2019 Regular Annual Report and a Conclusion Proposal to be submitted to the National Assembly for consideration and adoption.
The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairman Muamer Bacevac, and was attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Sandra Jokovic, Milanka Jevtovic Vukojicic, Dejan Stosic, Vesna Nedovic, Vesna Stjepanovic, Dragana Brankovic Mincic, Dragana Radinovic, Jelena Mihailovic, Nikola Kozovic, Aleksandar Jovanovic and Selma Kucevic.
