The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection said that it would be highly detrimental from the aspect of exercise and protection of human rights if the current convocation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia failed to enact certain laws which had been drafted much earlier and the enactment of which is not hindered by any justified reason until the new convocation is sworn in.

The Commissioner underscored in particular the immense importance of adoption of the Law on General Administrative Proceedings, the Law amending the Law on Ombudsman and the Law amending the Law on Extrajudicial Proceedings and recalled that several more laws are in parliamentary procedure, the adoption of which would be very useful both from the aspect of the achievement of priorities within EU integration and from the aspect of improvement and protection of Serbian citizens’ rights, the latter being particularly important.

In that regard, Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic also said the following:

“I think that the adoption of the Law amending the Law on Ombudsman may be the most important at this moment. Namely, failure to adopt it could, in conjunction with other circumstances, also result in an impasse in the operations of this institution, which is very important from the aspect of human rights protection.

The European Commission put the adoption of the new Law on General Administrative Proceedings at the very top of the priority list within Serbia’s EU integration. And what is even more important is the fact that the Law has been drafted seriously for a long time and underwent a serious public debate, which resulted in a modern text of high quality, the adoption of which would significantly contribute to enhanced operations of a number of public authorities and more efficient exercise of citizens’ rights in proceedings before those authorities.

Adoption of the Law on Extrajudicial Proceedings would enable addressing of the years-long problem of “legally invisible persons” and provide an opportunity for a significant number of Serbian citizens to overcome numerous problems in connection with the obtaining of personal identification documents.

In addition to these laws, several more draft laws have been submitted to the National Assembly the content of which should, in all fairness, not be disputable for their contents from the aspect of value systems of the government and the opposition and the adoption of which could be very useful from the aspect of citizens’ rights. Deputy groups in the National Assembly should take this into account, and I hope they will, and I urge them to adopt these laws.”