Serbia to lack law on assembly

14-10-2015
The 1992 law was found unconsitutional, a new law is not yet adopted.

Concerns over the Serbian Public Assembly Act of 1992 have long been raised and the need to further improve it in order to bring it into compliance with international standards has been voiced.

Read the 2010 Joint Opinion of the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR on the Act here.

Since 2012 the Constitutional Court of Serbia has also been examining certain provisions of the Serbian Act on Public Assembly and pointed out that they are unconstitutional. In 2013 the Constitutional Court began its own procedure for assessing constitutionality and notified the National Assembly. On April 9, 2015, the Court announced its decision, according to which the Public Assembly Act of 1992 is not in conformity with the Constitution. Publication and entry into force of this decision was postponed for six months, in order to provide the authorities to draft and adopt a new law. However, to date, this has not happened and thus Serbia is currently lacking a law on peaceful assembly.

Read the press release of protesting NGOs in Serbian here.