Following the submission by the Coalition for Access to Justice of the Initiative for reviewing compliance of certain provisions of the Civil Procedure Law with the Constitution, general rules of international legislation and the ratified international treaty – European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the Constitutional Court brought a decision initiating the procedure for establishing non-constitutionality of the provisions of the Law and their non-compliance with the ratified international treaty.

On 24 January 2012, the Coalition for Access to Justice submitted the initiative for constitutional review of the articles 85, 170, 193, 499 and 500 of the Civil Procedure Law. The Constitutional Court initiated the procedure for establishing non-constitutionality of the Article 85, paragraph 1 that restricts the right to access to court to citizens who cannot afford to pay for attorneys’ fees. In September 2011, during the procedure for adoption of the Civil Procedure Law, the initiative for amendment of this provision was supported by 67 non-governmental organizations, Ombudsperson, Association of Public Prosecutors and Deputies to Public Prosecutors of Serbia and the Judges’ Association of Serbia. Besides, the Constitutional Court initiated the procedure for constitutional review of the Chapter 36 of the Civil Procedure Law that regulates the procedure for protection of collective rights and interests of citizens.

In the part relating to articles 170 and 193 of the Law, the Initiative was rejected.

Coalition for Access to Justice represents informal gathering of organizations for protection of human rights and consists of the Center for Advance Legal Studies, Civil Rights Defenders, Humanitarian Law Center, Youth Initiative for Human Rights, CHRIS – Network of the Committees for Human Rights in Serbia, Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina, Praxis, Sandzak Committee for Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms

You can see the announcement about the submitted initiativehere