Serbian Government Obstructing Work of Council for Civil Society Development

Serbian government session (BETAPHOTO/SERBIAN GOVERNMENT/SLOBODAN MILJEVIC)

More than 100 days into its formation, the Serbian government had not appointed its members to the Council for the creation of a stimulating environment for the development of civil society, which is why the body could not legally operate, the Bureau for Social Research (BIRODI) said in a release on Aug. 20. 

BIRODI said that “suspending the work of this governmental body has devastating effects.” It went on to say that it was particularly important in the time when Serbia had been spending budget funds on certain members of civil society without defined purposes, without court proceedings initiated for such acts.” 

Meanwhile, a “Chinese report” on the US National Endowment for Democracy has emerged, while media outlets in Serbia have been presenting civil society as “CIA-run, espionage and traitorous organizations funded from abroad,” while “omitting the information about the nature of project funding and execution, thereby jeopardizing the right to assemble that is guaranteed under the Constitution,” BIRODI said.

In the release, BIRODI also pointed to calls in Serbia for passing “a law on foreign agents, which also threatens human rights defined in the Serbian Constitution.” BIRODI noted that the government’s failure to appoint its members to the Council had raised questions about its sincere intentions about the Council and civil society as an element of a democratic society in Serbia.”