The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders, Ms. Hina Jilani, issued the following statement on her preliminary findings of her official visit to the Republic of Serbia.
Cultural Decontamination, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, Women in Black and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, have appealed to Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica to start proceedings to determine the accountability of Aleksandar Simić, Adviser to the Prime Minister, and Dušan Proroković, State Secretary of the Ministry for Kosovo, for their undiplomatic and belligerent comments in relation to Kosovo and Montenegro. By assuming the right to give statements on behalf of Serbia and its citizens that Montenegro “does not qualify as being on a civilized level …”.
On 10 September 2007 the Humanitarian Law Center, Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM, Centre for Cultural Decontamination, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, Women in Black and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights submitted a request to the Ministry of Defence, on the basis of article 15, clause 1 of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 120/04), to disclose information of public importance connected to the bombing of the building of Radio-Television Serbia (RTS).
On 5 September 2007 the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), as part of its programme of support to victims of violated human rights in the realization of their restitution and compensation rights, filed a charge for compensation on behalf of Šefko Bibić from the village of Ugao (municipality of Sjenica) against the Republic of Serbia for acts of torture committed upon him by Mile Nedić, Inspector of the Municipal Police Directorate in Sjenica.
Since 1 September 2006, the Humanitarian Law Center has initiated 11 compensation lawsuits on behalf of Bosniaks from the Sandzak because of violations of their fundamental human rights in the period 1992-1995 and in 2001.
The Humanitarian Law Center, the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, Center for Cultural Decontamination, Women in Black, and Youth Initiative for Human Rights have sent a letter to the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Serbia, Dušan Petrović, asking him to make public the transcript of an intercepted communication of NATO pilots with their base.
Nongovernmental organizations from Serbia, the Humanitarian Law Center, Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, Youth Initiative for Human Rights, Women in Black, and Center for Cultural Decontamination, are pointing out that they are very worried about the assault of journalist Željko Ivanović, Director and one of the founders of the independent Montenegrin Vijesti Daily. They are demanding that Montenegrin authorities should support the media whose primary duty is to analyze critically the authorities and their acts.