The Judicial Academy is in cooperation withOffice of the OSCE Mission in Serbia On November 7 and 8, 2024, organized a consultation on the topic "Criminal prosecution of hate crimes in the Republic of Serbia". The activity was created as one of the results of many years of work on improving the knowledge and skills of public prosecutors, contact points in prosecutor's offices for handling cases with elements of the criminal offense of hate crimes and the promotion of the publication "Guidelines for Prosecuting Hate Crimes in the Republic of Serbia".

Lecturers at the counseling session were Dr. Jasmina Kiurski, public prosecutor in the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office, Tamara Mirović, public prosecutor in the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office, Biljana Sinanović, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, and Jelena Jokanović, program advisor at the Office of the OSCE Mission in Serbia. 

The topics of the consultation were: The concept of hate crimes and an overview of international practice and news in the field of hate crimes, Development of Guidelines for the prosecution of hate crimes in the Republic of Serbia (2012-2024) and the distinction between Article 54 a of the Criminal Code and criminal offenses with an element of hate , Criminal prosecution of hate crimes in the Republic of Serbia (challenges in work and examples of good practice), Criminal offense of hate crime - judicial aspect (challenges and examples of good practice).

Through the discussion, the participants had the opportunity to try to find answers to controversial legal issues, work problems, as well as examples of good practice in the field of hate crimes.

In the coming period, in cooperation with the OSCE Mission in Serbia, the Judicial Academy plans to organize training sessions on hate crimes for judges of all levels.