The Ministry of Justice of Serbia and its Prison Administration begun the work on the development of the new Strategy for Enforcement of Criminal Sanctions on 27 November 2020. This process has been supported by the Working Group established within the joint European Union and Council of Europe action “Enhancing human rights protection for detained and sentenced persons in Serbia”.

During the meeting, members of the Working Group discussed inter alia the successfulness of the expiring 2013- 2020 Strategy for Further Development of the System of Enforcement of Criminal Sanctions, as well as the timeframe and priorities of the new strategic document. As a result of the meeting five strategic priorities were defined and a 6-year time frame of the of the future strategy was set. In defining all strategic priorities, particular emphasis was on human rights protection of persons deprived of liberty.

This activity was organised by action “Enhancing human rights protection for detained and sentenced persons in Serbia”, phase II, which is a part of the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022, designed to support the Serbian authorities in ensuring the implementation of the key European standards and assists further progress in the European integration process.