Bill on Rights of Civilian Victims of War should be withdrawn

On 23rd December 2014, the public consultation on the Bill on the Rights of War Veterans,
Disabled War Veterans, Civilian Invalids of
War and their Family Members  (the Bill) prepared by the  Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy (the Ministry) was closed. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) believes that this Bill should be withdrawn from the adoption procedure, because it does not reflect the real needs and diversity of victims who live in Serbia, violates the constitutional principle of equal protection before the law for every citizen, and is deeply inconsistent with international and generally accepted norms relating to the protection of victims of human rights abuses.  

The Bill contains provisions governing the rights, procedures and conditions for according the status of civilian invalid of war, family member of civilian invalid of war and family member of deceased civilian invalid of war (hereinafter referred to as civilian victims). Additionally, it contains provisions governing the status and rights of veterans, disabled veterans and families of fallen combatants. While significantly improving the legal status of veterans and military victims of war, the Bill keeps almost completely unchanged the legal regime prescribed by the current Law on Civilian Invalids of War (the Law) where civilian victims are concerned.

In its comments submitted to the Ministry, the HLC pinpointed all the shortcomings of the Bill. The most severe criticism made by the HLC relates to the fact that the Bill maintains the discriminatory provisions of the current Law. Because of these provisions, the majority of civilian victims living in Serbia (at least 15,000 of them, according to HLC estimates) are excluded from the Law – that is to say, left without any government assistance. Among the excluded categories of victims are the families of missing persons, victims of sexual violence, victims suffering from mental health consequences and physical injuries whose disability level is less than 50 percent, as well as victims of the Serbian armed forces. The HLC also criticized the highly bureaucratized and complicated procedure for status recognition which, according to HLC experience, takes several years to complete and leads to the further humiliation of the victims.    

The Bill is contrary to international standards for the protection of victims of human rights abuses, which are enshrined in numerous United Nations and the Council of Europe documents. The current regime of protection of the rights of civilian victims,which remains almost unchanged in the Bill, has already been criticized by the UN Human Rights Committee, the Committee for the Prevention of Torture and the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe. Additionally, Serbia as a candidate country is obliged to adopt the legal standards of the European Union relating to the protection of the rights of crime victims before joining the European Union. The inconsistence with the EU acquis in this area has been pointed out also in the 2014 European Commission’s Serbia Progress Report, which states that “only few victims of war crime have access to effective compensation under the current legal framework”, and that “assistance to victims has not improved”

It is apparent that the authors of the Bill embarked on the procedure for amending the current legal framework with the sole motive of improving the status and rights of veterans and disabled veterans and families of fallen combatants, and completely neglecting the rights and needs of civilian victims of war and international standards relating to their protection.  The fact that some associations of Serbian victims from Kosovo and Croatia were not even informed about the drafting of the Bill says a lot about the approach and priorities of the drafters.

In view of the aforementioned shortcomings of the Bill, the HLC considers it necessary that the Bill should be withdrawn from the adoption procedure, and a new text of the law be drafted, which will identify all the needs and specificities of civilian victims in Serbia and provide them with protection and institutional support, in accordance with the standards of democratic societies.

This press release is supported by:

The Coalition against Discrimination,
which includes:
Association of Students with Disabilities
Center for Advanced Legal Studies
CHRIS – Network of the Committees for Human Rights in Serbia
Civil Rights Defenders
Gayten LGBT
Labris – Lesbian Human Rights Organisation
Praxis
Regional Center for Minorities

The Coalition for Access to Justice,
which includes:
Center for Advanced Legal Studies
CHRIS – Network of the Committees for Human Rights in Serbia
Civil Rights Defenders
Humanitarian Law Center
Independent Journalist’ Association of Vojvodina
Youth Initiative for Human Rights
Praxis
Sandžak Committee for Protection of Human Rights and Freedom