Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia 2006

Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia 2006in their languages in public institutions and institutions of autonomous provinces;founding private educational institutions; use of their name and family name intheir language; traditional local names, names of streets, settlements and topographicnames also written in their languages, in areas where they make a significant majorityof population; complete, timely and objective information in their language, includingthe right to expression, receiving, sending and exchange of information and ideas;establishing their own mass media, in accordance with the Law.Under the Law and in accordance with the Constitution, additional rights ofmembers of national minorities may be determined by provincial regulations.The regulations in this Article have been completely copied from Article 52of the small Charter. However, two rights have been left out. Those are:- to a certain number of mandates in the Assembly of the state unionof Serbia and Montenegro, proceeding from the principle of directrepresentation, in accordance with the laws of the member states;- to be adequately represented in public services, state authorities and localself-governance authorities;By leaving out these rights, the achieved level of the protection of minorityrights has been dramatically reduced, which is explicitly forbidden by theLaw on national minorities 113 . Furthermore, by leaving out the warrantiesto equal participation in government, the Article 15 of the FrameworkConvention for the protection of national minorities is being violated 114 .In this way another important international document has been brought todiscord with the new Constitution, and is in danger of being left out of thelegal system in Serbia.The right to equal representation in the organs of public authorities is oneof the rights of national minorities which is violated the most. Reportsfrom non-governmental organizations speak of under-representation ofthe members of national minorities in almost all state services, especiallyin the police and judicial organs 115 . Citizens of Serbian nationality make themajority in the police even in municipalities where more than 90 per cent of113 The Law on the Protection of Rights and Freedoms of National Minorities, adopted on February 27 th , 2002,Official Gazette of SRY number 11/02114 Article 15 of the Framework Convention, see above under 35115 Humanitarian Law Center, Alternative report for the implementation of the Framework Convention for the protection ofnational minorities, Albanians in Serbia, Belgrade, 2003; Humanitarian Law Center, The Roma in Serbia, Belgrade, 2003;Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, In conflict with the ethnical identity of the state, Belgrade, 2004; Youth Initiativefor Human Rights, The implementation of transitional laws in Serbia, Belgrade, 200533