{"id":33629,"date":"2023-02-06T11:10:11","date_gmt":"2023-02-06T10:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/?post_type=publikacija&p=33629"},"modified":"2023-10-27T12:34:20","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T10:34:20","slug":"pushing-and-pulling-what-s-wrong-with-the-new-draft-law-on-internal-affairs","status":"publish","type":"publikacija","link":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/publication\/pushing-and-pulling-what-s-wrong-with-the-new-draft-law-on-internal-affairs\/","title":{"rendered":"Pushing and Pulling: What\u2019s Wrong with the New Draft Law on Internal Affairs?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Draft Law on Internal Affairs<\/a>\u00a0from December 2022 represents a slightly improved version of its\u00a0last year\u2019s predecessor<\/a>. However, it still contains solutions that point to three dangerous trends: greater restrictions on the citizens\u2019 fundamental rights and freedoms, increased surveillance of the population versus fewer opportunities for public oversight of the police, and further politicisation of the police force.<\/p>\n

This is the most extensive and most important of the\u00a0six draft laws<\/a>\u00a0from the field of internal affairs that have been submitted for public debate in December 2022. After civil society organisations\u00a0appealed<\/a>, the Government of Serbia first extended the deadline for public debate and then decided to\u00a0withdraw<\/a>\u00a0the Draft Law on Internal Affairs. Representatives of the parliamentary opposition\u00a0joined<\/a>\u00a0the civil society organisations\u2019\u00a0advocacy<\/a>\u00a0against bad solutions, while\u00a0members of the European Parliament<\/a>\u00a0also intervened.<\/p>\n

Although the Draft Law on Internal Affairs regulates matters that are important for the respect and protection of human rights (Chapter 23) and crucial for the implementation of police reform (Chapter 24), the Draft\u2019s already brief explanation does not refer at all to Serbia\u2019s obligations from these two Chapters\u2019 Action Plans. The current Law on Police was adopted in 2016 and has already been\u00a0amended<\/a>\u00a0twice. The prEUgovor coalition notes that the proposed statutory solutions continue the\u00a0worrying trends<\/a>\u00a0that were observed in the security sector of the Republic of Serbia in the previous period.<\/p>\n

The members of the prEUgovor coalition will monitor the further process of drafting this and related laws and provide detailed comments and suggestions for improving disputed provisions. The initial recommendation to the MoI was to start from scratch due to the Draft\u2019s numerous and essential shortcomings. However, the Government insisted that such an option was not acceptable to them. In this brief alert, the prEUgovor coalition will briefly point out which provisions are especially problematic and give recommendations, appealing to the MoI and the public of Serbia to pay particular attention to them in the coming period.<\/p>\n

Some of the disputed provisions were discussed at the\u00a0meeting<\/a>\u00a0the representatives of the civil society held with the Prime Minister, Ministers of Internal Affairs and European Integration, and representatives of the MoI and the Ministry of Justice on 23 January 2023 within the framework of the NCEU. The revised Draft Law on Internal Affairs was presented on that occasion; some of the most problematic provisions were eliminated or changed, and there was a demonstration of readiness for a mutual exchange of arguments. The Prime Minister suggested that the dialogue on the Draft be continued during the following month, after which the official public debate on this act would be reopened.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read the full report here:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.preugovor.org\/Brief-Alert\/1784\/Pushing-and-Pulling-Whats-Wrong-with-the-New.shtml<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About prEUgovor<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Coalition prEUgovor is a network of civil society organisations formed to monitor the implementation of policies relating to the accession negotiations between Serbia and the EU, with an emphasis on Chapters 23 and 24 of the Acquis. In doing so, the coalition aims to use the EU integration process to help accomplish substantial progress in the further democratisation of the Serbian society.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Members of the coalition are: <\/span><\/i>ASTRA<\/span><\/i><\/a> \u2013 Anti-Trafficking Action, Autonomous Women’s Centre (<\/span><\/i>AWC<\/span><\/i><\/a>), Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (<\/span><\/i>BCSP<\/span><\/i><\/a>), Centre for Investigative Journalism in Serbia (<\/span><\/i>CINS<\/span><\/i><\/a>), Centre for Applied European Studies (<\/span><\/i>CPES<\/span><\/i><\/a>), <\/span><\/i>Group 484<\/span><\/i><\/a> and Transparency Serbia (<\/span><\/i>TS<\/span><\/i><\/a>).\u00a0<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Follow prEUgovor activities on the official <\/span><\/i>website<\/span><\/i><\/a>, <\/span><\/i>Facebook<\/span><\/i><\/a> page and <\/span><\/i>Twitter<\/span><\/i><\/a> account.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is controversial about the new Draft Law on Internal Affairs, how it was written and which provisions entail dangers for citizens\u2019 rights and the further politicisation of police work \u2013 these are questions to which the new prEUgovor brief alert offers answers and solutions for improvement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":33630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7415,11196],"tags":[11199],"vrsta":[9441],"pdfpub":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-33629","publikacija","type-publikacija","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bscp","category-preugovor-2","tag-draft-law-on-internal-affairs","vrsta-analysis"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publikacija\/33629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publikacija"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/publikacija"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33629"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publikacija\/33629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33652,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publikacija\/33629\/revisions\/33652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33629"},{"taxonomy":"vrsta","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vrsta?post=33629"},{"taxonomy":"pdfpub","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pdfpub?post=33629"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bezbednost.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=33629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}