Trainings for improving the free legal aid system

Civil servants authorized for deciding on the application for granting free legal aid as well as civil servants employed in the budget and finance departments in Kragujevac, Arandjelovac, Batočina, Gornji Milanovac, Čačak, Jagodina, Kraljevo, Knić, Lapovo, Petrovac na Mlavi, Svilajnac, Topola, Velika Plana, Sokobanja, Ub and Žabari attended the first of ten planned trainings for improving the free legal aid system in Kragujevac.

Trainings aim to contribute to improving the system of free legal aid in order to make it easier for citizens to exercise their right and are especially important for raising the capacity of recently established departments authorized for deciding on the application for granting free legal aid. Trainings are organized by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government and are supported by the project "Support to Strengthening Rule of Law in the Republic of Serbia" (EU ANTI-CORRUPTION AND FOR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS), funded by the EU and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), whose implementation is in charge of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ),  with the support of the Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights (Yukom).

The Law on Free Legal Aid in the Republic of Serbia was adopted in 2019 with the aim of enabling access to justice and legal protection for every person, especially for the most vulnerable citizens. Although the system was established at the end of 2019, there are still numerous weaknesses in the implementation of the law and poor information of citizens about the existence of the right to free legal aid. Local self-government units are the basic units of the free legal aid system, providing legal assistance and support and deciding on the award of a free lawyer, notary public or mediator.