Commissioner for the Protection of Equality Brankica Jankovic opened the meeting dedicated to the presentation of manuals for combating discrimination “Guide for Situational Testing of Discrimination” and “Guide for Strategic Litigation”, produced in cooperation of Commissioner for the Protection of Equality and Center for Improvement of Legal Studies. Manuals are dedicated to civil society organizations, solicitors and lawyers who practice protection against discrimination.

Commissioner Brankica Jankovic stated that these guide books are very useful tools, because they contain exact tips and examples which can be applied to various situations in practice. She stressed that proving of discriminatory acts is not always simple, but that every successfully disclosed case can make great improvement in suppressing of discrimination. Other speakers at the meeting were also Biljana Braithwaite from AIRE Centre, Jovana Vukovic from Equality organization, Adam Weiss from European Roma Rights Centre, while Sasa Gajin from Center for Improvement of Legal Studies was the moderator of event.

“Guide for Situational Testing of Discrimination” is dedicated to activists who, within civil society organizations, fight individual cases of discrimination, especially by collecting evidence on discriminatory acting. It elaborates issues such are situational testing, history, methodology and principles that are foundation of situational testing, types of testing, areas of implementation.

“Guide for Strategic Litigation” is dedicated not only to civil society organizations but also to solicitors and lawyers who, by initiating proceedings for protection against discrimination, attend to contribute to development of jurisprudence and actions of authority bodies in area of prohibition of discrimination. This manual drives readers to think about strategic litigation goal, the choice of the authority before which the procedure is to be initiated, relations between solicitors, party in proceeding and civil society organization during the strategic litigation procedure, information and data management and other similar issues.

The meeting was organized by Center for Improvement of Legal Studies in cooperation with Commissioner for the Protection of Equality and partner civil society organizations, Equality, AIRE Centre, Civil Rights Defenders, Educational Center and Pescanik. Production and presentation of manuals was supported by European Union within a project “Providing the Effective Support to Members of the Most Discriminated Groups and Their Organizations”.