4.5 Mission to Serbia
For 2018, the Mission proposed shifting focus from a police-centred to a more comprehensive
and inclusive approach to security sector and governance reform, linking reform process
in the fields of criminal justice system, law enforcement, defence, democratic control and
community participation. Therefore, the Mission proposed to re-name its Police Affairs
Department the Security Co-operation Department.
Activities Related to
General Police Development
and Reform
Strategic Planning including
Threat Assessments
On 3 February, the Mission presented the outcomes on the
evaluation of the Strategy on SALW Control in the Republic
of Serbia 2010–2015 to the MoI. The evaluation process was
initiated in 2016 in co-ordination with all state actors involved
in the implementation of the expired Strategy, including
the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications,
Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the MoI.
On this occasion, the Mission and the MoI agreed on future
steps in the development of the new five-year Strategy. This
activity is a part of the Mission’s overall efforts to support
strategic institutional responses to combating proliferation of
SALW, in co-operation with UNDP/SEESAC.
In July and August, an external expert hired by the OSCE
Mission to Serbia conducted a situation analysis on SALW
control in the Republic of Serbia. Along with the assessment
of the previous SALW Strategy and Action Plan (2010-2015)
conducted by the Mission in 2016, the situation analysis was
valuable for developing the new SALW Strategy and Action
Plan (2018-2023).
From 25 to 27 October and 11 to 13 December, the Mission,
together with the MoI and the UNDP/SEESAC facilitated
two three-day meetings for an inter-agency working group
tasked to finalize the new Strategy and Action Plan to Control
SALW in the Republic of Serbia in the Period 2018-2023.
The Mission hired an expert to assist the working group in
defining goals and activities in the new strategy and action
plan. This activity is a part of the Mission’s overall efforts to
support a strategic approach to controlling small arms and
light weapons, in co-operation with UNDP/SEESAC.
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Human Rights and Police Accountability
From 10 April to 30 May, the Mission, together with the
Office of the Commissioner for Protection of Equality and
the MoI, organized four workshops for police officers on
identifying various types of discrimination and adequate
responses. A total of 120 officers from all 27 police districts
in Serbia learned about international standards in this
area, reviewed the existing national anti-discrimination
legislation, including principles of gender equality in the
security sector. The workshops were held in four sites:
Sabac, Zlatibor, Vrnjacka Banja and Srebrno jezero. This
activity complements the MoI’s commitment to upholding
ethical principles and diversity in police work. It is part of
the Mission’s wider efforts to foster accountability in the
relationship between the community and the police service.
In December, the Mission and the MoI jointly commissioned
the tenth consecutive annual public perception survey on
the work of the police, to provide reliable data for measuring
trends in how citizens perceive effects of police reform.
The survey was conducted on a representative sample of
1,000 interviewees through face-to-face interviews. The
questionnaire contained 120 questions that were also used in
the previous surveys, thus enabling comparison of data and
studying of trends.
Anti-Corruption
On 30 January, the Mission and the MoI co-organized a fourweek specialized pilot course on prevention and suppression
of corruption for economic crime police investigators from
the MoI’s Service for Suppression of Crime. Participants
learned how to document cases and act on public prosecutors’
orders to provide evidence. The objective of this activity
was to increase the officers’ overall ability to investigate
corruption-related cases, as well as to fine-tune the curricula
for the upcoming specialized courses. This activity is part of
the Mission’s wider efforts to enhance the police capacity to
fight corruption.
From 3 April to 24 May, the Mission conducted an
assessment on how the new Law on the Organization and
Jurisdiction of State Authorities in Suppressing Organized
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