Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia 2006

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Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia 2006A similar stipulation exists in almost all the documents that deal withhuman rights. It has been articulated more than two centuries ago in the 9 thAmendment of the USA Constitution. It states:“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not beconstrued to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” (Constitutionof the United States of America, adopted 1787, Amendment number 9,adopted 1791).The principle that a human right (which is innate and belongs to anindividual as soon as he/she is born), although not explicitly guaranteed bya document, is a very powerful principle and represents one of the cornerstones of international law as it pertains to human rights. By erasing it fromthe Constitution of Serbia, a clear message is being sent that human rightswere not a priority to the creators of this constitution.Another thing that can be noticed is the unnecessary reduction of the earlierthree Paragraphs of the Small Charter to only one sentence in Paragraph1 of the new Constitution. Unpolished and unintelligible sentences, whichare found in abundance in this Constitution, are not welcome in any legalacts, especially not in the supreme legal act. As in many other articles ofthe Constitution, it is unclear why identical regulations in the Small Charterwere not simply copied.The Constitution of Serbia can be compared only to the previous legaldocument which used to regulate human and minority rights. In the case ofSerbia, that is the Charter on Human and Minority Rights. Considering this,the arguments of some politicians and lawyers that human and minority rightsare better regulated by this Constitution than by Milosevic’s Constitution,are superfluous 42 . The only point of reference for the improvement oraggravation of the matter of regulating human and minority rights is theSmall Charter, and not the Constitution from 1990.42 The text of the Constitution is better, but the implementation…, B92, October 16 th , 2006, website: http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/u_fokusu.php?id=122&start=75&nav_id=216597, visited on November 23 rd , 2006; ThisConstitution is better than Milosevic’s, B92, October 3 rd , 2006, website: http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/u_fokusu.php?id=122&start=150&nav_id=214073, visited on November 23 rd , 200616
Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia 2006Prohibition of DiscriminationArticle 21All are equal before the Constitution and law.Everyone shall have the right to equal legal protection, without discrimination.All direct or indirect discrimination based on any grounds, particularly on race, sex,national origin, social origin, birth, religion, political or other opinion, property status,culture, language, age, mental or physical disability shall be prohibited.Special measures which the Republic of Serbia may introduce to achieve full equality ofindividuals or group of individuals in a substantially unequal position compared to othercitizens shall not be deemed discriminationThe regulation on the prohibition of discrimination is by all means one ofthe most important in any Constitution. Unfortunately, those who framedthe Constitution have determined that it is necessary to leave out somebases for discrimination. In this way, compared to articles of the SmallCharter, skin color has been ignored as a basis for discrimination 43 , eventhough numerous reports state that skin color is one of the most frequentbases for discrimination in Serbia 44 . The fact that all other aspects haveliterally been copied from the Small Charter is especially confusing.Furthermore, the absence of sexual preferences as the basis for discriminationis conspicuous. Although this basis was not specifically named in theSmall Charter either, the legislative practice in Serbia has already entered itinto many legal acts. Discrimination on the basis of sexual preferences isrecognized in the Law on Public Information 45 (Article 38) and the LaborLaw 46 (Article 18). Research by non-governmental organizations, indicatesthat discrimination on the basis of sexual preference is very frequentin Serbia 47 . Despite this, and despite the already achieved standard ofprohibition of this kind of discrimination in various laws, the Constitutiondoes not name sexual preference as a basis for discrimination. Organizationsthat deal with the protection of the rights of the LGBT population havesharply protested against this decision 48 .43 Article 3, Paragraph 3 of the Small Charter, see above under 3644 Humanitarian Law Center, The Roma in Serbia, Belgrade, 2003; Minority Rights Center, Violations of rights of theRoma in Serbia, report number 2, Belgrade, 200345 Law on Public Information, see above under 146 Labor Law, adopted on 15 th , March 2005, Official Gazette of RS number 24/0547 Labris, Annual report on the status of LGBT population in Serbia, Belgrade, 2006; Belgrade Center for HumanRights, Human Rights in Serbia 2005, Belgrade, 200648 What is offered in the draft of the Constitution, B92, October 24 th , 2006, see website: http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/u_fokusu.php?id=122&start=45&nav_id=216774, visited on November 23 rd , 200617
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Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia 2006

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