Commissioner for the Protection of Equality Brankica Janković participated in counselling “Court practice in the field of anti-discrimination legislation” organized by the Judicial Academy with the support of OSCE.

Commissioner Janković talked about previous activities on the harmonization of court practice in the field of non-discrimination and about experiences in the Commissioner’s practice in strategic litigation from a party’s point of view. The Commissioner pointed out that the aim of the Commissioner is to ensure, with its process activity, the adoption of favourable judgements which, in addition to providing legal protection of discriminated persons, send a clear message to the public that discrimination is prohibited and effectively sanctioned. She pointed out that the purpose of strategic litigation is to ensure the proper interpretation or application of anti-discrimination regulations and, hence, to clarify the meaning of a particular regulation through court practice, or to show with this practice that a particular regulation needs to be amended, modified or improved.

This event was attended by judges from all four appellate courts – from Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kragujevac and Niš, and judge of the Supreme Court of Cassation Lidija Đukić. They spoke about past court practice in the field of non-discrimination and proposed activities to be taken for the harmonization of court practice.