Full Coverage: Serbia and Montenegro

31.03.2006 Since the establishment of democracy in 2000, the media reforms in Serbia have been both slow and inconsistent. In order to expedite the approximation to requirements presented by the future EU membership, Serbia needs to give up on its arbitrary media policies and legislation and commit itself to implementation of adopted regulation.

31.03.2006 The internet forum of the “Stormfront” neo-Nazi organization in Serbian language again carried threats and calls for concrete direct action against the activists of several NGOs in Serbia.

29.03.2006 The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights published the fourth miscellany of essays Helsinki Files, under the auspices of the “Serbia in Modernization Processes in the XIX and XX Centuries” project. The miscellany was dedicated to women and children during this period.

29.03.2006 The Youth Initiative for Human Rights submitted its request to the Serbian Skupstina (the Parliament) for urgent appointment of CitizensÂ’ Advocate, an institution that would lay the ground for the establishment of the Office of the Ombudsman.

24.03.2006 The Belgrade School of Security Studies (BSSS), research unit of the Centre for Civil-Military Relations (CCMR) will hold a regional conference entitled “Safer Balkans Network”, to discuss how security studies has been developed in the Western Balkans in the last decade and to explore the current state of academic and non-academic educational programmes in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro.

23.03.2006 Best Stories from Visa Queues, a collection of stories published by the CitizensÂ’ Pact for the SEE, will be presented to the Members of the European Parliament. The authors of the stories included in the compilation - Vitomirka Trebovac, Ivan Branisavljevic, Nemanja Kuzmanovski and Barbara Pavljasevic - will read excerpts from their works.

22.03.2006 Under the auspices of the “Equal Access to Information Society” project, the Equal Opportunities (Jednake mogucnosti) association from Belgrade will organize the “Towards E-Society on Equal Ground: Directions, Control Lists and Best Gender Equality Practices” panel discussion.

20.03.2006 Slobodan Lalovic, Serbian Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Policies, said that the Law on Gender Equality should be adopted by the end of the summer session of the Skupstina (Serbian Parliament). Lalovic said, in his address to the Towards the Law on Gender Equality conference, that the the essence of the problem surrounding gender equality in the moral and social system, and the regulations should just assist the achieving of full equality.

15.03.2006 Slobodan Milosevic's death means the details of the U.S-led NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and the role the U.S. played in the disintegration of that country will never be scrutinized, argues Jeremy Scahill.

14.03.2006 After the death of Slobodan Milosevic, last Saturday, the ICTY in the Hague officially declared the process against Milosivic closed. The last session of the Court Council presided by Judge Patric Robinson marked the end of the trial on charges of crimes against humanity in Kosovo and Croatia, and genocide in B&H. Judge Robinson said that he lamented MilosevicÂ’s death and the fact that both Milosevic and the interested parties were denied the final verdict in the case.

13.03.2006 Vukasin Pavlovic, Professor at the School of Political Sciences in Belgrade, believes that Serbian needs wide coalition to prevent the restoration of the ancient regime and to establish democratic development. He said at the round-table discussion, Future of Civil Society in Serbia, held at the School of Political Sciences that the difficult problems in Serbia canÂ’t be solved only on political level.

12.03.2006 While Slobodan Milosevic's death has been called "tragic for the truth" by some, much information had already surfaced about the worst atrocities Europe has seen since World War II, and the tribunal presses forward.

10.03.2006 The network of the CitizensÂ’ Pact for Southeast Europe is made unique in the region by the fact that it includes both nongovernmental organizations and local administrations.

10.03.2006 Currently, the Citizens Pact is working on the Campaign for Liberalized Visa Regimes; the Programme for support to European Integration Processes at the Local Community Level; Programme for Development of Local Level Youth Strategies; and, Programme of Cooperation of Local Communities from Vojvodina and the Netherlands.

10.03.2006 The Citizens' Pact for SEE is a network of 117 member organizations from the region of Southeast Europe. It includes both non-governmental organizations and local administrations, which makes it very specific network. We talked to Rajko Bozic, Programme Coordinator with CP, on the possibilities for cooperation of the two sectors and the general subject of civil society in the region.

10.03.2006 The dez.org Art Group organized the Open Software Week at the BelgradeÂ’s Ozon Gallery. In addition to presentation by members of dez.org, the Open Software Week included a number of events, workhops, lectures that provided insight in the development, possibilities and character of open software as a social phenomenon. The association, education, freedom of action and activism are some of the aspects discussed during the Open Software Week.

09.03.2006 Parallel to the official negotiations on the future status of Kosovo between Belgrade and Pristina, two women organisations, the Women in Black from Serbia and the Kosovo Women Network, announced that they will have their own negotiations on the same issues.

07.03.2006 Ten municipalities in Serbia signed the agreement for participation in the implementation of the first phase of the MEGA programme for Stimulation of Economic Development of Municipalities.

06.03.2006 The Open Society Fund in Serbia started the Future of Information in Minority Languages in Serbia – Towards Optimal and Sustainable Model initiative, under which it implements a survey on status and situation of media in Serbia that broadcast programmes in minority languages.

03.03.2006 Mercy Corps started the programme for reduction of unemployment, intended for companies and firms from ten municipalities in Southern and Western Serbia that wish to create new jobs. The programme aims to create new jobs through support for firms with good prospects, and through overall support to local economy development.