Author: Tijana Ilić

Belgrade, November 18, 2025.

Civil society organizations for human rights warn the domestic and international public that the manner in which the procedure for electing the new Commissioner for the Protection of Equality of the Republic of Serbia was carried out led to a serious nonsense of this process. Such an approach undermines the credibility of an institution crucial to the fight against discrimination and reduces its capacity to independently and effectively protect the human rights of all citizens of Serbia.

The manner in which the election procedure was carried out, the absence of involvement of the general public and relevant actors, as well as a series of steps that deviated from the expected standards, indicate that the state was not directed towards a transparent and inclusive process, but towards the control of the procedure itself, thereby missing the opportunity to strengthen the mission and credibility of this independent institution.

The deadline of only eight days, of which several days were weekends and public holidays, did not allow for quality consultations or consideration of a large number of candidates. This gives the impression that the goal of the Serbian Parliament, which is conducting the entire procedure, was not to ensure the selection of the best candidate, but only to fulfill the minimum formal obligation.

Organizacije civilnog društva žele da dodatno istaknu politički kontekst ovog procesa, budući da je institucija Poverenika za zaštitu ravnopravnosti jedna od ključnih nezavisnih institucija. Za razliku od drugih procedura izbora, koje su se često odugovlačile ili sprovodile uz višemesečna odlaganja, ovaj proces je sproveden izuzetno brzo i bez stvarnog prostora za javnu raspravu. Takva brzina ukazuje na jasnu političku nameru da se i ova institucija stavi pod direktan uticaj vlasti. Ovakvi postupci šalju zabrinjavajuću poruku o spremnosti institucija i donosilaca odluka da aktivno oslabe mehanizme zaštite ljudskih prava i dalje suze prostor nezavisnog institucionalnog delovanja.

The Law on Prohibition of Discrimination stipulates that the candidate must meet high moral standards and enjoy the trust of the public. Although two of the three proposed candidates meet the formal requirements of expertise and experience, the statements and public appearances of the candidate proposed by the parliamentary group “Aleksandar Vučić – Serbia must not stand still” in recent years raise the question of his ability to perform his duties in accordance with the principles of independence, political impartiality and equal treatment of all citizens without discrimination. If such a candidacy were to be confirmed, there would be a real fear that a message would be sent that the National Assembly is not committed to preserving the reputation and essential independence of the institution of the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality.

With this action, the National Assembly for the fifth time misses the opportunity to strengthen the institution of the Commissioner and show true commitment to the values ​​of equality and democracy. Therefore, we call on the National Assembly to:

1. Cancel the previous procedure and return it to the beginning.
2. Implement a new, fully transparent and participatory process, with the involvement of civil society organizations and other relevant actors, with an adequate time frame that ensures real competition and selection of the best candidate.

Signatories:

• Balkans Forward Foundation
• Belgrade Center for Human Rights
• Group “EXIT”
• NVO Praxis
• Građanske inicijative
• Trag Foundation
• BalkanIDEA Novi Sad
• Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia
• Komitet pravnika za ljudska prava YUCOM
• Youth Initiative for Human Rights
• Helsinki Committee for Human Rights
• Autonomous Women’s Center – AŽC
• Association Let it be known!
• Initiative for economic and social rights A 11
• Network of the Committee for Human Rights in Serbia (CHRIS)
• Uzice Center for Children’s Rights
• Belgrade Pride
• Music Art Project
• Youth Integration Center
• Environmental organization EcoSync
• Association of citizens for the fight against human trafficking and all forms of violence against women Athens
• Initiative for the Rights of Persons with Mental Disabilities MDRI-S
• Okular
• Association “Miona” Aleksandrovac
• Group for children and youth “Indigo”
• Psychosocial Innovation Network – PIN
• Labris – organization for lesbian human rights
• CZKD – Center for Cultural Decontamination

Belgrade, October 21, 2025.

Today’s decision of the Expert Service of the National Assembly represents an open violation of the Law on Electronic Media. By including nine new proposers in the vote on candidates for the REM Council, the expert service acted contrary to the report of the Board published on October 14, 2025, and thus grossly violated the Law and the credibility of the process.

At the reconciliation meeting of the National Councils of National Minorities, the expert service enabled the voting of the National Councils that did not participate in the previous process. In this group of authorized proposers, candidates were proposed by: the Bosniak National Council, the Albanian National Council and the National Council of the Hungarian National Minority. At the meeting held earlier today, another 9 national councils were illegally invited to vote, which initially did not propose their candidates and did not participate in the process, and therefore do not have the right to vote.

In the very invitation they sent to the National Councils, the National Assembly stated that one representative should be sent to the reconciliation meeting for three authorized proposers, and not for the twelve who voted in total at the end. In this way, the integrity of the procedure was directly violated and it was possible for the candidate of the National Council of the Hungarian National Minority, István Bodžoni, to be elected. This violated the Law on Electronic Media, since, according to the current rules, only the candidates Muhedin Fijuljanin and Lumturija Ameti, who received the most votes in this group of 3 authorized proposers, had a legitimate number of votes.

It is completely illegal to include nominators who have not nominated their candidates at this stage of the process. We demand that in this category the illegitimate ballots be canceled and the candidates who won the largest number of votes from legitimate nominators, namely Muhedin Fijuljanin and Lumturija Amet, be declared successful.