Commissioner for the Protection of Equality Brankica Jankovic spoke about up to date activities aimed to unification of court practice in the area of non-discrimination, and also about experiences from the Commissioner’s practice in the proceedings in front of courts for the protection against discrimination i.e. strategic litigations. At the opening of this seminar, which was dedicated to the role and significance of strategic litigations, Commissioner stressed in her addressing to judges, seminar participants, that the goal of Commissioner is to obtain, through its processing activity, the issuing of favorable court decisions that not only provide legal protection to discriminated persons, but also send clear message to the public that discrimination is forbidden and successfully sanctioned.
“Goal is also to send a clear message through judiciary practice that discrimination is intolerable in our society, as well as to indicate in some cases that a regulation should be improved or amended. Proving of discriminatory acting is not always simple. Every completed case can make a great progress in combating discrimination, especially if it concerns groups which are multiply vulnerable and frequent cases of discrimination, as well as when potential discriminator is important social stakeholder”, said Jankovic.
Seminar was attended by judges of Appeal Courts from Belgrade, Novi Sad and Kragujevac, while moderators were Ivana Krstic, professor at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade and Biljana Braithwaite, international consultant from AIRE Center, London.
The project “Strengthening of capacities of institutions and organizations in Serbia aimed to adequate implementation of legislations in areas of human rights and prohibition of discrimination” has being realized within Good Governance Fund of the Government of Great Britain, as a support to institution of Commissioner for the Protection of Equality who positioned strategic litigation among top three priorities, in order to strengthen the rule of law and democratic responsibility.
