The Judicial Academy of the Republic of Serbia, in cooperation with the OSCE Mission in Serbia, on October 17 and 18, 2024, in Zlatibor, in the premises of Hotel Mona, organized a workshop on the topic: "Compensation for non-material damages in cases of discrimination - presentation of Guidelines for judges".

The goals of the workshop were the presentation of the results of the work of the focus groups held during September 2023, the presentation of the working version of the Guidelines for awarding compensation for non-material damages in cases of discrimination and encouraging discussion on the content of the Guidelines and current controversial legal issues in the field of discrimination.

The lecturers at the workshop were Jelica Bojanić Kerkez, judge of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Serbia and prof. Dr. Nevena Petrušić, retired full professor of the Faculty of Law, University of Niš.

The target group were the judges of the civil divisions of the higher and appellate courts from the territory of all four appeals who act in discrimination cases, participants of previously held focus groups.

Introductory speeches were given by Dominik Drašnar, Senior Advisor for National Minority Affairs at the OSCE Mission in Serbia, Nenad Vujić, Director of the Judicial Academy, and Jelena Jokanović, National Coordinator of the OSCE Mission in Serbia.

The workshop covered topics: Analysis of court practice and presentation of focus group conclusions, Guidelines for awarding compensation for non-material damages in cases of discrimination - presentation of structure and content. 

During the discussion, questions were raised about the possibility of introducing a special label for cases, current court statistics, reporting problems, the use of the judicial practice base, circumstances related to the act of discrimination, circumstances on the part of the discriminated against, circumstances on the part of the perpetrator, the applicability of the principles and factors proposed in the Guidelines. in practice.

As a reminder, the Guidelines are the result of regional cooperation of a group of authors from Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, implemented with the support of regional offices of the OSCE Mission and the Judicial Academy. 

As part of the activities that preceded the preparation of the Guidelines in 2023, focus groups with judges from Serbia, regional workshops and online meetings of the author team were organized and an analysis of court cases was carried out.

In the following period, the promotion of the Guidelines is planned, as well as the organization of round tables on the topic of discrimination.