No. 021-01-932/2024-02 date: 25. 12.2024
MINISTRY OF HEALTH
Zlatibor Lončar , Minister
11000 BELGRADE
Nemanjina No. 22-26
Your reference: 011-00-22/2024-21 from 29.11.2024.
Subject: Initiative for amendments to the Law on Human Organ Transplantation and the Law on Human Cells and Tissues
Dear Mr. Lončar,
The Commissioner for the Protection of Equality has repeatedly addressed the Ministry of Health regarding the adoption of amendments to the Law on Human Organ Transplantation and the Law on Human Cells and Tissues, in order to re-establish a complete legal framework and regulate the transplantation of organs and tissues from deceased persons following the decisions of the Constitutional Court.
Given that a new Government has been elected, the Commissioner again addressed the Ministry of Health on May 21, 2024, with a supplemented initiative to amend the laws mentioned above (No. 021-01-932/2024-02)[1].
Regarding this initiative, on November 29, 2024, you sent us a letter informing us that the Ministry of Health, by Decision No. 119-01-618/2024-21 of November 5, 2024, established a Working Group to draft the aforementioned laws. In your letter, you indicated that the Working Group would seriously and responsibly consider the Commissioner’s Initiative, for which we are grateful.
After your letter, a roundtable discussion was held on the amendments to these two important laws, organized by the association “Donorship is Heroism”, at which a version of the draft amendments to the laws was presented. The Commissioner was invited to that event to provide their comments on the text of the Draft Law that the organization “Donorship is Heroism” provided to us.
After the roundtable discussion, the aforementioned organization contacted us, indicating that the text of the Draft Law on Human Organ Transplantation of the expert group assembled by the organization “Donation is Heroism” was not even taken into consideration, and the text adopted by the working group does not contain all the corrections and has not removed the ambiguities pointed out by the Constitutional Court. The letter also indicated that Professor Jelena Simić, the only lawyer in the working group, was not given the opportunity to explain her comments, despite the fact that the amendments to this law are exclusively in the domain of legal and technical solutions.
We were also informed that this organization received support for its proposal at the meeting held with you on June 18, as well as at subsequent meetings. Given your understanding and commitment to resolving this important issue, we would like to point out that when determining the Draft Law, special attention should be paid to the reasons for the decisions of the Constitutional Court and the guidelines given by this court, so that future amendments to the law would not again be subject to an assessment of constitutionality and legality and so that the almost complete cessation of transplantation would not occur again.
In recent years, a lot has been invested in the construction and adaptation of healthcare institutions, as well as in new equipment and training of healthcare personnel, and such a standstill would affect the underutilization of existing capacities, while we should not forget how much an increased number of transplants would make patients’ lives easier and reduce the costs of necessary medicines and medical devices that are needed to maintain the health of patients awaiting transplantation.
Given the importance of providing adequate and comprehensive healthcare, as well as your support as Minister to the organization that contacted us, as a precaution, we are once again addressing you with the aim of finding the best solutions and determining the text of the law that will establish a complete and lawful legal framework for the transplantation of organs and tissues from deceased persons.
We also point out that once the drafts of the Law on Human Organ Transplantation and the Law on Human Cells and Tissues are established, you should submit these laws to us for our opinion following Article 33, paragraph 1, item 7 of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination.
[1] https://ravnopravnost.gov.rs/407-24-inicijativa-ministarstvu-zdravlja-za-izmenu-zakona-u-vezi-transplantacije/
COMMISSIONER FOR THE PROTECTION OF EQUALITY
Brankica Janković
