The joint European Union and Council of Europe action „Strengthening human rights protection in Serbia“ organised on 12 April in Belgrade, in co-operation with the Constitutional Court, a training for around 50 advisors of the Constitutional Court on the application of the quality of law and proportionality tests before domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights.

The president of the Constitutional Court Snežana Marković stated in her opening speech that for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law in Serbia, it was important to know and to apply case-law of the European Court of Human Rights in cases before the Constitutional Court. She also noted that „the role and importance of the advisors in the work on cases and drafting of the Constitutional Court decisions is often not recognised or emphasised well enough.“

Consultant of the Council of Europe, former judge of the Supreme Court and of the Constitutional Court Katarina Manojlović Andrić highlihted in the training that the most important novelty in the work of the Constitutional Court is that it has started to implement in its decisions on the abstract control of constitutionality and legality human rights standards established by international organisations, most notably by the European Court of Human Rights. Evgueni Boev, senior legal advisor in the European Court of Human Rights, presented to participants through an overview of relevant case-law  main views of the European Court of Human Rights on this issue.

Through questions and answers and discussion with the panelists that was moderated by the judge of the Constitutional Court Nataša Plavšić many issues which are important for the work of the advisors, both in the abstract control procedure and the work on the constitutional complaints, were elaborated.

This training was organised within activities that the action „Strengthening human rights protection in Serbia“ implements with the aim to strengthen capacities of domestic insitutions to implement the European Convention on Human Rights at domestic level. 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.