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The Protector of Citizens is an independent and autonomous state body, charged with protecting and promoting respect for freedoms and rights.
Milan Vujić Photo: Personal archiveDuring the year, citizens of Serbia were denied their rights on several occasions, thus the question arises as to what led to a person who has been granted institutional status not acting within their competence, i.e. , don’t do your job.
The Protector of Citizens is empowered to initiate a procedure to assess the constitutionality of an act, to which the Constitutional Court should react.
The curfew was introduced by order of the Minister of the Interior, Nebojsa Stefanovic (Order on restriction and prohibition of the movement of persons to the territories of the Republic of Serbia).
Only the Government is authorized to introduce a curfew during a state of emergency (Article 200 of the Constitution).
Regardless of the fact that the Minister is not authorized to issue such orders, the Government subsequently issued a decree (Decree on Misdemeanors for Violation of the Order of the Minister of the Interior on Restriction and Prohibition of Movement of Persons in the Republic of Serbia) that prescribes minor offenses and criminal responsibility Constitution (article 34 of the Constitution).
The failure of the state’s legal system headed by a “high-level” lawyer was confirmed in part by the Constitutional Court, but not at the initiative of the Protector of Citizens.
It is obvious that the enactment of these acts was to the detriment of the public, especially those who were misconduct and / or criminally responsible for the violation of the measures at the time.
The independent institution forced to react did not fulfill its duty, so the citizens were left to the illegal repression of the State.
On the other hand, the Ombudsman, Zoran Pasalic, requested only at the beginning of last month that a disciplinary process be initiated against the police officers in charge of acting on the reports of citizens about the meeting of “unknown persons on the roofs of residential buildings “.
He later said in a statement that the police officers did not establish their identities, nor did they consider the existence of a basis to file charges for minor crimes.
At that time, MP Vladimir Đukanović was among the “unknown” people.
At the end of March, at the beginning of May, together with the thugs, he participated in a torchlight procession in support of the authorities and against the work of the opposition, and committed the crime of causing public danger (Article 278 of the Penal Code) by the one who was sentenced to six months to five years in prison. .
This is not the end of Zoran Pasalic’s omissions.
He and his team personally supervised the apparently illegal actions of police officers on the streets of Belgrade in July.
Many videos and photos of police brutality have been circulating on media and social media for days.
Despite all that, the report of the Protector of Citizens was never published and stated that there was no excessive force towards the participants in the protest.
In addition to all of the above, as an independent body, it did not supervise the work of the Ministry of Health.
Nothing has been done with regard to the information on the concealment of the data on the number of infected and dead.
Thus, the citizens of Serbia were deprived of being informed in a truthful, complete and timely manner on issues of public importance (article 51 of the Constitution), and the responsibility to deny the rights guaranteed by the Constitution ended with a media speech by Dr. Predrag Kon.
The work of independent institutions in Serbia is reflected in the work of people with an institutional character, such as Zoran Pašalić, Zagorka Dolovac and others.
The institutions are completely closed, even those that enjoy immunity that allows them independence and autonomy in their work.
The Ombudsman left the citizens of Serbia at the mercy of the authorities, regardless of all legal frameworks that allow him to protect their rights and freedoms.
“Honor is honor and power is power”, and what will the dishonest do as the protector of the citizens when this oppressive regime comes to an end?
The author is a student at the Faculty of Law of the University of Novi Sad.
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