In the year of 2012 BCSP celebrated its 15th anniversary and continued with the development of innovative research, educational materials and programmes, as well as the new communication and advocacy tools and tactics.

In Independent Report on the Implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) on UN SC Resolution 1325 in the Republic of Serbia BCSP wish to present the greatest achievements in the NAP implementation process, point out the challenges encountered in this process, and propose measures for overcoming these and improving NAP implementation.

During the last couple of decades, civil society organisations have became actors in the security sector. Good governance of the security sector is not only effective exercise of the economic, political and administrative competences of government, but also requires the involvement of non-statutory actors in the control and oversight of state institutions.

The police in Serbia has come a long way since 2001 and new democratic foun-dations have been laid upon which the police can fulfil their duty to serve the country’s citizens. There have been four crucial changes.

The courts and public prosecution have two important functions within the security sector. The first is to combat crime by means of prosecution and punishment of criminal offenders. The second is judicial control over executive actors in the security sector.

In this paper we will present the assumptions underlying the research conducted by the Centre for Civil-Military Relations team within the "Mapping and Monitoring Security Sector Reform in Serbia" project.

Private security companies (PSCs) in Serbia have been active since the early 1990s. PSCs fall under the category of non-state actors authorised to use force. It is estimated that these companies today employ between 20 and 60 thousand people in Serbia.

The changes in the military over the past eight years were strongly influenced by the political turmoil in Serbia, the post-conflict and post-authoritarian context in which the armed forces developed, and the lingering union with Montenegro. As a result it is hardly surprising that the approach of the ruling elites to the reform of the armed forces was driven by everyday political needs and interests.

Prisons should be ‘safe places’; there should be no riots and escapes, and should not be a places to plan or commit criminal offences. The situation in Serbia, however, does not meet these requirements, as will be shown below.