November 2005

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OSCE MISSION TO SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO BACKS THE USE OF MINORITY LANGUAGES IN THE COURTS

November 2005 - The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the world’s largest regional security organization, sent a group of experts to Serbia and Montenegro in order to organize a study visit and a workshop on 28 and 29 of October. The aim of this visit was to improve the service of the judiciary system to national minorities by offering training courses to 19 representatives of the courts and public prosecutors offices from Southern Serbia, an area of the country predominantly populated by ethnic Albanian. The workshop, which took place in the Senta Municipal Court, sought to train the above mentioned staff to conduct court proceedings in the language of such minority. In Serbia, there are several municipalities where large ethnic minority communities exist, and the challenge has been to provide the necessary strategies, infrastructure and qualified staff to conduct all aspects of the court proceedings in other languages, even though the Serbian legal framework provides for the conduct of court proceedings in the language of a national minority.

The OSCE mission took as an example several courts throughout the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, as court proceedings there are carried out in Hungarian, the language of the predominant national minority of the region. During these two days the judges and prosecutors from southern Serbia observed their Hungarian-speaking colleagues conducting criminal and civil court proceedings. This provided the background for discussions during which the technical and legal requirements, human rights issues and human resource needs were outlined.

As Stephen Kelley, the Legal Advisor on Judicial Reform of the OSCE put it, “conducting court in the language of a national minority is an important step for Serbia in its effort to build bridges to those communities". He added that "this training course provides the judges and prosecutors responsible for meeting European standards and the legal requirements of Serbian law with the technical knowledge necessary for its implementation."

Representatives from the Supreme Court of Serbia, the Co-ordination Body for South Serbia, the Justice Ministry, and other members of the judiciary also participated in the workshop.

The project forms part of the ongoing efforts of the Mission to support the Co-ordination Body to implement the 2001 peace agreement, aimed at re-integrating the ethnic Albanian community into state institutions.