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Forum opened on
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We are pleased to inform you that the online Forum has been launched within the website of Democratic Political Forum. Public debates related to political issues and our interactive web portal are the ways for improving communication between policymakers and citizens. The online Forum provides a venue where you, as a citizen, can express your opinions and give your suggestions, attitudes, and ideas to participate in politics and policymaking. Participate in dialogue within our Forum! Participate in the creation of politics!
www.politickiforum.org/forum
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| Our newest publication on Respecting Employee Rights |
Within the project The Power of our Social Responsibility - State, Business, Citizens for Economic and Social Rights, Center for Democracy Foundation has published the brochure "Respecting the Human Rights of Employees - Confirmation of Rule of Law". The 50 page brochure encompasses: ** Short information on the campaign ** Introductory article on rights covered by the project from the perspective of international documents and conventions ** Article on rights covered by the project from the perspective of national laws, primarily Labor Law. ** 36 individual testimonies of current and former employees regarding violation of the following rights: work without contract, unpaid social security benefits, regulations on length of working hours, right to paid vacation, unpaid overtime hours, workplace mobbing, harrassment and intimidation. The publishing of this brochure is made possible by the support of USAID through Institute for Sustainable Communities.
Click here to download the brochure.
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The Position of Women on the Labour Market in Serbia
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UNDP Serbia has published a book based on the findings and recommendations of the Gender Equality Council of the Serbian government. Download the book here. |
| Serbia's EU Integration Office |
The government of Serbia's European Integration Office has several publications containing useful information about the road to EU accession.
For more information, visit their website at www.seio.sr.gov.yu.
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| European Commission Enlargement |
How does EU enlargement work? Click here to read about Serbia's profile in the enlargement process. |
To halve poverty in Serbia by the year 2010!
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The Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) is a national mid-term development framework aimed at reducing key forms of poverty. The PRS is a national document that provides an analysis of causes, characteristics and profiles of poverty in Serbia, as well as the main strategic guidelines for social development and the reduction of the number of the poor in the years to come. Read more. |
Questions, comments and contributions
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Please write at:
ebulletin@centaronline.org
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Democratic Political Forum in its 3rd Season  Center for Democracy, in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, has organized several lively debates in recent weeks as part of our Democratic Political Forum (DPF) project.
We are also pleased to report that DPF, now in its third year, has entered into cooperation with TV B92 which is now featuring debate highlights on B92 Info Channel.
March 13, 2009 
Free Primary School Textbooks -Constitutional Obligation of the State?
Main Speakers: Dr. Zarko Obradović, Minister of Education, Republic of Serbia
March 30, 2009 
State, Society and Religious Organizations
Main Speakers: Milan Vukomanović, Sociologist of Religion at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade
Radovan Bigović, Professor at the Orthodox Religious Faculty of Belgrade
April 10, 2009
 Gender Equality in Serbia Main Speakers: Natalija Mićunović, Head of the Gendar Equality Council in the Ministry for Labor and Social Policy
Gordana Gasmi, Professor at Singidunum University
April 22, 2009
 Unions and the Crisis
Main Speakers: Zoran Stojiljković, Vice President of "Nezavisnost" Union
Milorad Mijatović, Vice President of the Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions of Serbia.
All debates were held at the National Bank of Serbia and moderated by B92 journalist Ljubica Gojgić.
For more information and an analysis of all debates, visit www.politickiforum.org.
 The project is supported by Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
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Center for Democracy continues the campaign for the protection of economic and social rights
 Zorana Petrovic* worked in a company for wood processing from 14 August to 14 March 2008. Working time was formally 8 hours but in practice at least 10, very often even 14. However, in the payment slip, there was always 168 hours per month written. The owner's son psychologically harassed all employees and if someone dared to oppose him, he/she would be immediately fired. All employees had a renewable one month temporary contract, and after 11 months of work got fired so that they would not have to be officially permanently employed which is required by law after 12 months of continual work.
Zorana did not do anything to protect her rights but instead waited for a better opportunity, and left the job as soon as she found it. Upon the expiration of her 10 month contract with the company, Zorana checked with the National Employment Service for compensation of her wages. However, she wasn't able to get anything as the previous employer had not paid for social security benefits. But, from all things described, the worst according to Zorana was the psychological harassment, insults,
mobbing, intimidations, comparisons with animals, threats of being fired and decreasing the salary - all without any real cause. And "I never got compensation for overtime work even though I very often had 30 working hours of overtime per month." * name has been changed
Zorana's testimonial is only one of many we received describing the violation of employee rights in Serbia, within the project "The Power of our Social Responsibility - State, Business, Citizens for Economic and Social Rights". Center for Democracy is continuing the campaign for the protection of economic and social rights of employees in Serbia, which we first conducted in the period 2007-2008. Click here to read more testimonials of violations of employees' rights.
We are carrying out our campaign in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis and Kraljevo, in cooperation with the non-governmental organizations Lingva from Kraljevo, Protecta from Nis, Vojvodina Center for Human Rights from Novi Sad and Center for Advanced Legal Studies from Belgrade. The main goals of this campaign are to launch a public discussion on the necessity of amending the labor law, particularly in the parts pertaining to labor contracts and record keeping on working hours, as well as to pass the law on mobbing. In addition, we want to encourage employees themselves to be more active in the protection of their human rights, and employers to be more responsible in respecting the rights of their employees.
By working together with the government and business communities, as well as with the working public, we hope to ensure the fulfillment of employees' human rights in employment and the workplace, particularly through the improvement of the legal framework, so that experiences like Zorana's will no longer take place.
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Implementation of EU Values, Policies and Standards in Local Communities 
 Thirty-five year old Vladica Pavlovic, head of the non-governmental organization Local House of Development from Brus, was among the 140 participants who completed Center for Democracy's intensive, 10 day training on European Standards in Serbia, which took place in Pomoravski and Rasinski counties. His NGO's successful cooperation with the local authorities has been recognized by the donor community and promoted as a model of planning for economic and social development to other municipalities of Rasinski district.
According to Vladica, participation in our seminar was useful for him and his colleagues in several aspects. Firstly, they have already passed on some of the information and knowledge gained from the training about the changes that the introduction of European standards are expected to bring to the day to day life and work of their fellow citizens, particularly in the areas related to consumer protection, agrobusiness and environmental protecction, which were the main topics of the training. Secondly, they embedded some of these predictions and experiences in the planning of their organization's further activities.
 Furthermore, Vladica and his colleagues are using their participation in Center for Democracy's trainings to present their organization and its activities to their fellow participants. "Apart from Brus, we plan to strengthen the capacities of local structures for economic and social development in the city of Krusevac and the remaining four municipalities of Rasinski district: Aleksandrovac, Trstenik, Varvarin and Cicevac. Our goal is to enable all municipalities of the district to become members of NALED's association of certified and branded municipalities and cities of Serbia", says Vladica.
Click here for more information about our project "Implementaion of EU Values, Policies and Standards in Local Communities."
 Projekat finansira EU kroz Fond za Evropske integracije kojim rukovodi Delegacija EK u Republici Srbiji, a tehnički realizuje Press Now
Projekat je sufinansiran u okviru programa poljske pomoći inostranstvu Ministarstva inostranih poslova Republike Poljske u 2008. godini
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Diplomacy and Parliament
Center for Democracy, in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, organized the final part in a series of seminars, Diplomacy and Parliament, for members of parliament (MPs) who are active in international cooperation. The goal of the seminars, which took place March 27-29 in Palic, was to improve communication skills, as well as to enhance the understanding of diplomatic dialogue.
MPs gained knowledge about public and parlamentary diplomacy, EU and international negotiations, US-Serbian relations, as well as international cooperation among political parties. Trainers included: Tanja Misčević (Faculty of Political Science), Zivorad Kovačević (European Movement in Serbia), Dusan Lazić (Forum for International Relations), Dragoljub Mićunović (Chairman of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee), Gordana Čomić (Deputy Speaker of the Serbian Parliament) i Vladimir Ateljević (European Integration Office).
This project is supported by Friedrich Ebert Foundation. |
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