Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia 2006

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Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia 2006clear. Furthermore, „the organ responsible for monitoring the right ofthe citizens to be informed”, as the Constitution calls it, already exists.His title is the Commissioner for information of public significance andaccording to the law his term lasts for seven years. A question arises why thelaw anticipates the election of this organ. There are objective indicationsthat the Government wants to significantly narrow the authorizations ofthe commissioner or to cancel it as an institution, and possibly name anew organ which would monitor the until now non-existent „right of thecitizens to be informed”. Another function of the commissioner is notonly to monitor the realization of the right of free access to information,but also to protect it. By such an act the accomplished rights would bediminished, which is forbidden both by the international regulations, andthe Constitution of Serbia 323 .From 1st July 2005 to 30th October 2006, the Office of the Commissionerhad had the total of 1992 cases in their work 324 . 1329 cases were resolved,while 663 are in the process of being resolved 325 . From the resolved1329 cases, 1014 were complaints 326 . Deciding on the complaints, theCommissioner had made 357 decisions by which the organs of publicauthorities were ordered to enable access to the requested information 327 .Of these 357 decisions, 30 have not been realized 328 .On the complaints filed by the Initiative to the Office of the Commissioner,25 decisions were made. In a large number of cases the organs of publicauthorities had delivered the Initiative the requested information as soon asthe commissioner informed them of the filed complaint, so that there wasno need for the commissioner to reach a decision on every complaint.Starting an administrative procedure against the decisionof the CommissionerIf a person is not satisfied with the decision reached by the Commissioner,they can file an administrative procedure though bringing charges to theSupreme Court of Serbia 329 . In the previous practice 32 charges were brought323 Constitution of Serbia, Article 20, see above under 7324 See above under 298325 Ibid326 Ibid327 Ibid328 Ibid329 Law on free access to information, Article 27, see above under 374
Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia 2006against the decision of the commissioner, of which 16 were delivered tothe commissioner to explain 330 . Six charges were resolved, one was rejected,and five were dismissed 331 .The Security Informative Agency (BIA) had filed one of the charges againstthe decision of the commissioner, by which BIA was instructed to deliverthe requested information in three days to the Initiative. Deciding on thecharges, the Supreme Court of Serbia had, not entering the meritum, decidedto drop the charges because BIA did not have any active legitimacy to bea party in the procedure 332 . Namely, the prosecutor in an administrativeprocedure can be a physical person, juristic person or other party whichconsiders that a right or an interest based on the law was injured by theadministrative procedure 333 . In this case the issue was for BIA to deliverto the Initiative the requested information, and not its right or an interestbased on the law 334 .Petition to the Government of the Republic of Serbia toprovide the execution of the Commissioner’s decisionThe law has predicted the Government as the organ responsible for theenablement of the execution of the conclusions and the decision of thecommissioner 335 . In previous practice it was noticed that the Governmenthad not executed any of the decisions of the commissioner when thiswas required. The way in which the Government will make sure that thedecisions and the conclusions of the commissioner are carried out, isnot regulated by the Law on free access to information. The deadline hasalso not been determined, so it is unclear in which time the submitter canexpect that the Government will do it. The possible procedure, which isanticipated by the Law on administrative processes 336 , is for the decisionsof the commissioners to be secured by a compulsory measure in the formof a monetary fine which can be repeated several times until the obligationis fulfilled.330 See the web page: http://www.poverenik.org.yu/Dokumentacija/15_informatorldok.pdf, visited on November25 th , 2006331 Ibid332 The Decision of the Supreme Court of Serbia from May 23 rd , 2006, number U 247/06, in the documentationof the Initiative333 Ibid334 Ibid335 Law on free access to information, Article 28, Paragraph 2, see above under 3336 Law on Administrative Procedures, Official Gazette of SRY, number 33/97 and 31/01, Article 276, Paragraph375
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Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia 2006

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