OSCE Mission to Serbia, UN and Serbian Ministry of Human and Minority Rights discuss how to improve reporting on human rights obligations

BELGRADE, 5 June 2009- A conference aimed at improving reporting by Serbian state institutions to UN bodies for monitoring international human rights treaties started today in Kovacica.

The two-day event, hosted by the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and supported by the OSCE Mission to Serbia and the UN in Serbia, aims to strengthen co-operation among state institutions in monitoring and reporting on implementation of human rights obligations in the country.

"The OSCE Mission offers its support to the state in setting up and strengthening the appropriate institutional framework for the preparation of reports. We also encourage a more participatory reporting process allowing civil society to better scrutinize government policies," said Ambassador Hans Ola Urstad, the Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia.

Representatives from state institutions and civil society took part in the discussion, which focused, among other issues, also on measures to ensure civil society's active participation in the reporting process and the use of modern technologies for data collection and data processing to obtain relevant statistical data in a more continuous and comprehensive manner.

"This conference is of particular importance for the Ministry in striving to make the reporting system even more efficient and for the fulfilment, promotion and protection of human rights in the country, which represents one of the most important preconditions for accessing and joining the European Union," said Svetozar Ciplic, the Minister of Human and Minority Rights.