Commission for the Protection of Equality

Overview

Commissioner for the Protection of Equality is an independent, autonomous authority for prevention of all forms and types of discrimination. 
The Commissioner for the Protection of Equality is competent to carry out the procedure based on complaints in cases of discrimination against persons or groups of persons connected by the same personal characteristic. The Commissioner is competent to receive and consider complaints of discrimination, to issue opinions and recommendations in concrete discrimination cases, and to stipulate measures defined by the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination.
All proceedings before the Commissioner are free of charge and tax free.

Brief history

The Commissioner for the Protection of Equality is an independent, autonomous and specialized state authority established on the basis of the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination from 2009.
The first Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, Nevena Petrusic PhD, was elected on May 5th 2010 by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. The second Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, Brankica Jankovic, was elected on May 26th 2015.  National Parliament appointed Brankica Jnkovic to be Commissioner for Protection of Equality 26 November 2020, which is her second mandate as a head of the institution.
The normative framework for the work of the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality consists of the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, the relevant international documents, and general and special antidiscrimination laws of the Republic of Serbia.
The task of the Commissioner is to prevent all forms, types and cases of discrimination, to protect the equality of natural persons and legal entities in all spheres of social relations, to oversee the enforcement of antidiscrimination regulations, and to improve realization and protection of equality.

The organisational structure of the CPE Office is set by the Rulebook on Internal Organisation and Systematisation of Posts. This act provisions establishment of three sectors as the basic internal units:

• Sector for Protection of Equality: Department for Acting upon Complaints, (Group for Complaints – public sector, Group for Complaints – private sector), Section of Litigation, Section for Normative and Legal Matters
• Sector for Improvement of Equality: : Group for Projects, Group for Collaboration, Group for Research, Analysis and Reporting Sector for General Affairs: Human Resource and Finance Department (Group for Finance, Group for Human Resource), Group for IT Affairs, Section of Registry with Archive
• Sector for General Affairs.

The Commissioner’s Office and the Group for Disseminating Information are established as special internal units.

Governing laws and regulations

Mandate

Sectors covered

Private, Public

Legal standing before the courts

Bringing proceedings in the name of the equality body [with or without an identifiable victim], Intervention in support of a party, Requests for constitutional review of discriminatory regulations before the Constitutional Court

Functions

• Carrying out specialist research on equality and non-discrimination
• Making legally binding decisions on claims of discrimination
• Monitoring national law and policy from an equality perspective
• Networking with relevant entities in the country and internationally
• Organising awareness raising and communication activities
• Organising training, advising and capacity-building activities for particular stakeholders on meeting their obligations
• Advising government on the development, adoption and amendment of law and policy

Fields and grounds

Other grounds

Skin colour, ancestors, citizenship, national affiliation, language, sexual characteristics, level of income, financial position, birth, genetic characteristics, previous convictions, appearance, membership in political, trade union and other organisations and other real or presumed personal characteristics.

Other mandates of the institution

Standalone dedicated national equality body

Institution

Management and Appointments

Management

Single headed equality body (led by director or ombudsman/commissioner)

The Office is managed by the Commissioner and the sectors are managed by the Assistants to the Commissioner. The Commissioner establishes the Consortium as an advisory body. The Commissioner’s Consortium consists of the Commissioner, three Commissioner’s Assistants, and the Commissioner’s Head of Office. If necessary, heads of organisational units can participate in the work of the Consortium, upon the Commissioner call.

Procedure for nomination and appointment of management and board

The Commissioner is elected by the National Assembly by majority vote of all members. Candidate for the Commissioner is proposed bythe Committee on Constitutional and Legislative Issues with the majority vote of its members. Every parliamentary group in the National Assembly has the right to propose a candidate to the Committee.
Any national of the Republic of Serbia may be elected to the post of the Commissioner provided that he/she fulfils the following conditions: being a graduate of law; having a minimum of ten years’ working experience in legal matters pertaining to the area of human rights protection; having high moral and professional qualities. The Commissioner may not perform any other public or political function or any political activity, in accordance with the law.
The jobs of Commissioner’s Assistants and of Chief of cabinet are defined as positions. The Commissioner’s Assistants are appointed to this position for the period of five years, on the basis of an internal or public job competition, while the Head of Office is appointed to this position until the expiry of the Commissioner’s term of office. The Commissioner’s Assistants and the Chief of Cabinet are categorized in the first group of positions (while the Chief of cabinet is categorized in the third group of positions). All other jobs are executive jobs, including jobs of managers of smaller internal organizational units.

Regional or Local offices

1

Accountability

National Parliament