State Department Reports of Serious Problems with Independence of the Judiciary, Free Expression and Corruption in Serbia

Belgrade, panorama (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

In its 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, published on April 23, the US State Department says that there were no significant changes in the human rights situation in Serbia during 2023, underlining serious problems with the independence of the judiciary, serious government corruption, and serious restrictions on free expression and the press.

These problems, according to the document published on the State Department website, were recorded in “credible reports.” 

In regard to restrictions on free expression and the press, the State Department particularly highlights violence, threats of violence, and unjustified legal cases against journalists. 

The significant human rights issues, according to the report, include trafficking in persons, and crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, or other sexual minority individuals.

The document further says that although “the government took steps to identify, investigate, prosecute, and punish officials who may have committed human rights abuses, both in the police force and elsewhere in the government, following public allegations of abuses, many observers believed numerous cases of corruption, social and domestic violence, attacks on civil society, and other abuses went unreported and unpunished.” 

“Independent international and domestic NGOs and monitoring bodies reported the judiciary was susceptible to corruption and political influence,” while “government officials and members of parliament continued to comment publicly regarding investigations, court proceedings, or on the work of individual judges and prosecutors,” it is said in the State Department’s report.