A series of judgments by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) against Serbia has highlighted the need for clearer interpretation and application of rules on property deprivation in criminal and misdemeanor proceedings. On this topic, 60 participants from the judiciary, prosecution, Constitutional Court, Ministry of Justice, State Attorney’s Office, and customs authorities came together for a discussion in Belgrade.

The participants had the opportunity to discuss the practices of different institutions regarding property deprivation. The conference examined issues related to the application of the Law on the Seizure of Property Obtained from Criminal Offenses, while the main focus was on how to align deprivation of property imposed as a protective measure in criminal and misdemeanor proceedings with ECtHR standards. Valuable insights on this topic were provided by Ružica Žarevac, Senior Legal Adviser at the ECtHR, who presented relevant views from the Court’s judgments against Serbia, as well as by Bojana Nikolin, Head of Section in the Department for the Execution of ECtHR Judgments at the Council of Europe, who gave an overview of how countries in the region have addressed similar challenges. The shared experiences will serve as highly useful guidance in the further process of executing the mentioned ECHR judgments.

The conference was organized jointly by the action “Strengthening human rights protection in Serbia“, which is a part of the joint European Union and Council of Europe program “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye”, and the OSCE Mission to Serbia. The conference is a part of larger efforts of the action to align Serbian legislation and domestic courts’ case-law with the ECtHR standards.