18 Apr Reports on the implementation of the Law on Free Legal Aid in Serbia

The A 11 – Initiative for Economic and Social Rights and the NGO Praxis presented reports on the implementation of the Serbian Law on Free Legal Aid from the perspective of persons at risk of statelessness and internally displaced persons in Serbia on February 18, 2021. 

A survey conducted by Praxis showed that only 32% of municipalities and cities have formed a free legal aid service, and that in 18% of local self-government units no request for free legal aid has been submitted, while in 32% more than 10 requests have been submitted in a year. The worrying fact is that in two thirds of local self-government units, the persons in charge of deciding on requests for free legal aid also provide free legal aid.

As Milan Radojev, the legal coordinator at Praxis, pointed out, an extremely small number of people at risk of statelessness managed to receive free legal aid in the manner prescribed by the law. He especially emphasized that these citizens almost never managed to realize the right to free legal aid on their own, but the aid was approved only after Praxis’ lawyers helped them in achieving that.

On the other hand, the research of Initiative A 11 indicates the inaccessibility of the system of free legal aid to the most vulnerable internally displaced persons. Persons belonging to particularly vulnerable groups, who participated in the research, state that they are not adequately informed about how they can access free legal aid, that procedures are not accessible and transparent, and that their requests are often rejected only orally.

Having in mind the shortcomings which the enforcement of the Law on Free Legal Aid has brought to the most endangered citizens, as well as the fact that the Law practically excludes associations of citizens specialized in providing free legal aid from the possibility of providing free legal aid, it is necessary to amend the Law and improve its commitment to providing access to justice to those citizens who are most at risk. In addition, information campaigns on the rights that citizens have in the free legal aid system, as well as training of employees dealing with the provision of free legal aid, are necessary steps to improve free legal aid for the most vulnerable ones.

Here you can find Praxis’ report: 

https://www.praxis.org.rs/images/praxis_downloads/REPORT_LAW_ON_FREE_LEGAL_AID_THE_FIRST_YEAR.pdf

References from the official website of the NGO Praxis