The first of four planned meetings for public prosecutors on how to refer to standards and case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in prosecutorial acts and on proper ways to quote ECtHR decisions, took place in Belgrade on 24 April. The meetings are organised by the joint European Union and Council of Europe action „Strengthening human rights protection in Serbia“ in co-operation with the Judicial Academy and Supreme Public Prosecution Office. The  aim of these meetings is to improve capacities of public prosecutors to apply case-law of the European Court of Human Rights in their day-to-day work.

Judicial Academy Director Nenad Vujić highlighted in his introductory speech the importance of referring to the ECtHR case-law in prosecutors’ daily work. He also noted that in 2018 the National Network of Judges and Prosecutors for Implementation of ECtHR standards was established with the aim to create a pool of experts among judges and prosecutors who could be focal points for ECtHR case-law for their peers. Vujić invited interested prosecutors to take part in Network’s activities.

Public prosecutor Jasmina Stanković from the Supreme Public Prosecution Office stated that meetings such as these are beneficial for prosecutors as they enable them to learn how to quote specific opinions or standards of the ECtHR and how to apply them to the cases they work on.

Through presentation of the Council of Europe’s consultant Vesna Ćorić public prosecutors had the opportunity to learn about main findings of the ECtHR relevant for their work. Prosecutor Jasmina Stanković and Judge Vesna Filipović from the Appellate Court in Belgrade presented to participants proper ways to quote ECtHR decisions in domestic legal acts, while representatives of the Judicial Academy Biljana Stepanović and Aleksandar Stojanović presented to participants legal databases of the Judicial Academy Е-juris and Cross-reference, which enable access to a large number of relevant ECtHR decision in Serbian language.

The meetings are part of the years long efforts of the action „Strengthening human rights protection in Serbia“ to strengthen capacities of domestic institutions to implement the European Convention on Human Rights at domestic level. In this cycle meetings for public prosecutors from the territories of all four appellate seats will be organised. Apart from the meeting in Belgrade, the meetings will also take place on 25 April in Novi Sad, 16 May in Kragujevac and 17 May in Niš.

The action is a part of the joint programme of the European Union and the Council of Europe „Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye“, implemented by the Council of Europe.