After the reaction to, and critical considerations of, the (third) Draft Law on Free Legal Aid by a large number of non-governmental organisations and independent bodies for the protection of citizens’ rights, an ad hoc working group of lawyers has compiled a draft of solutions in response to the issues present in and the provisions of the draft law.
The proposals cover four key topics: the definition of ‘users’ and ‘providers’ of free legal aid, issues surrounding both the management and decision-making structures regarding the right to free legal aid, and financing. The solutions formulated by the working group take into account the following contextual issues: widespread poverty, high unemployment, threats to basic human rights and freedoms (particularly of socially vulnerable groups), the overproduction of laws introducing new rights and obligations which is responsible for increasing legal uncertainty (particularly for citizens without knowledge of the law), inconsistency and the lack of comprehensive insight into accepted-international standards regarding the rights to legal assistance, a fair trial, and effective remedies, and the development strategy of the legal aid system.
In this regard, a press conference was held by the representatives of three CSOs – Vanja Macanovic (Autonomous Women’s Center), Danilo Curcic (Praxis) and Katarina Golubovic (The Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM) – on June 18th 2014 at the Media Center in Belgrade.
Photos, videos, and a report from the event can be found here