THE ROLE OF THE OMBUDSMAN IN THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
THE PROTECTOR OF CITIZENS OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25234/pv/36729Abstract
The Ombudsman is an institution of non-judicial, external and parliamentary control of public administration, which was founded in 1809 in Sweden. For more than a century, it remained an institution specific to that country, before spreading to more than 100 countries during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The paper is divided into three sections: the first sets out general considerations concerning the ombudsman, the second section examines the increasingly prominent role of the ombudsman in the protection of citizens’ human rights, whereby the ombudsman functions as a national human rights protector, and, finally, the third section is devoted to the Protector of citizens of the Republic of Serbia, as the central national institution for the protection of human rights. Initially, the ombudsman was conceived as a specific form of control of public administration, and much less as a human rights protection mechanism. Legal control is not the only control undertaken by the ombudsman, which means that he does not only control legality, but also focuses on control of expediency, efficiency and even fairness. In addition to the traditional ombudsman model (as it was conceived in Sweden and Denmark), a hybrid model has also developed. This model has, for example, been adopted in Serbia, where it acts both as a controller of public administration and as a protector of human rights. A further model, that of a human rights protector, has been adopted in the other former Yugoslav republics. With the adoption of the new 2006 Constitution, Serbia established the Protector of Citizens as a constitutional institution. This body functions as a national institution for the protection of human rights and as a national preventive mechanism for the prevention of torture, in which capacity it cooperates with relevant international institutions. The main hypothesis advanced in the paper is that certain provisions of the 2021 Law on the Ombudsman represent, in fact, a step backwards compared with the 2005 Law.
References
Anderson S, ‘Judging Judges: The Special Court of Complaints in Denmark (Den serlige Klageret)’ (1980) Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift 89
Aviani D, ‘Pojam i vrste ombudsmana’ (1999) 1(1) Hrvatska javna uprava 67
Axberger H.G, ‘The Original Recipe: 200 Years of Swedish Experience’ in Conference Papers, The 9th IOI World Conference held in Stockholm (International Ombudsman Institute 2009)
Barnett H, Constitutional & Administrative Law (8. edition, Routledge 2011)
Beker K, ‘Zaštitnik građana (Ombudsman) Kvebeka’ (2010) 2 Strani pravni život 165
Bizjak I, ‘The Human Rights Ombudsman of Slovenia’ in Hossain K, Besselink L. F. M, Selassie H, Völker E (eds) Human Rights Commissions and Ombudsman Offices: National Experiences Throughout the World (Kluwer Law International 2000)
Blagojević A i Marić I, ‘Institucija ombudsmana – pojam, porijeklo i razvoj’ (2010) 10(1) Pravni vjesnik 105
Dapčević-Marković Lj, ‘O instituciji policijskog ombudsmana – pojam, nadležnosti i ovlašćenja’ (2005) 1(10) Nauka, bezbednost, policija 71
Davinić M, Evropski ombudsman i loša uprava (Zaštitnik građana 2013)
Dimitrijević P, ‘Problemi u funkcionisanju lokalnog ombudsmana’ in M Simić (ur) Zbornik radova Pravnog fakulteta u Nišu – Tematski broj – Izgradnja pravnog sistema Republike Srbije (Pravni fakultet Univerziteta u Nišu 2007)
Gajin S, Ljudska prava – pravno-sistemski okvir (2. izdanje, Pravni fakultet Univerziteta Union u Beogradu, Centar za unapređenje pravnih studija, Institut za uporedno pravo 2012)
Glušac L, ‘Razvoj koncepta nacionalnih institucija za ljudska prava: od Ženevskih smernica do Pariskih principa’ (2023) 1188(74) Međunarodna politika 29
Jagerskiold S, ‘Swedish Ombudsman’ (1961) 8 University of Pennsiylvania Law Review 1077
Kalednjak M i Šantalab M, ‘Ljudska prava treće generacije’ (2013) 3(7) Tehnički glasnik 322
Lasage M, ‘Institucija Medijatora Republike Francuske’ (1990) 3–4 Zbornik radova Pravnog fakulteta u Novom Sadu 39
Lazarević M, ‘Različite forme hibridnog modela ombudsmana sa osvrtom na Zaštitnika građana u Srbiji’ (2017) 4(54) Politička revija 119
Lilić S, ‘Zašto je novi Ustav Srbiju ostavio bez ombudsmana’ in S Lilić, B Kovačević-Vučo, D Milenković (ur) Ombudsman – međunarodni dokumenti, uporedno pravo, zakonodavstvo i praksa (Komitet pravnika za ljudska prava 2002)
Marković Č i Jugović S, ‘Specijalizovani ombudsmani u Republici Srbiji’ (2012) 1(17) Nauka, bezbednost, policija 141
Marković R, Ustavno pravo (12. izdanje, Pravni fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu, Centar za izdavaštvo i informisanje 2014)
Milkov D, ‘Pokrajinski zaštitnik građana – ombudsman’ in Lj Stajić (ur) Tematski zbornik Harmonizacija srpskog i mađarskog prava sa pravom Evropske unije (Pravni fakultet Univerziteta u Novom Sadu, Centar za izdavačku delatnost 2024)
Milkov D, ‘Povodom novog Zakona o Zaštitniku građana’ u Ristivojević, B (ur.),Tematski zbornik Harmonizacija srpskog i mađarskog prava sa pravom Evropske unije (Pravni fakultet Univerziteta u Novom Sadu, Centar za izdavačku delatnost 2022)
Milkov D, ‘Specijalizovani ombudsmani’ (2007) 1(16) Zbornik radova Pravnog fakulteta u Novom Sadu 101
Milkov D, Upravno pravo III – Kontrola uprave (7. izdanje, Pravni fakultet Univerziteta u Novom Sadu, Centar za izdavačku delatnost 2013)
Musa A, ‘Uloga ombudsmana u zaštiti građana od tijela lokalne i regionalne samouprave (komparativni prikaz)’ (2001) 3–4(3) Hrvatska i komparativna javna uprava: časopis za teoriju i praksu javne uprave 559
Nastić M, ‘Ombudsmansko delovanje u zaštiti ljudskih prava’ (2019) 2(53) Zbornik radova Pravnog fakulteta, Novi Sad 489
Radojević M, Preobražaj ombudsmana u savremenim pravnim sistemima s posebnim osvrtom na instituciju Zaštitnika građana u Republici Srbiji (doktorska disertacija, Pravni fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu 2016)
Rajić N, ‘Opravdanost uspostavljanja nadležnosti zaštitnika građana u pogledu pokretanja postupka ocene ustavnosti zakona’ (2013) 2(47) Zbornik radova Pravnog fakulteta u Novom Sadu 481
Reif L C, ‘Transplantation and Adaptation: The Evolution of the Human Rights Ombudsman’ (2011) 2(31) Boston College Third World Law Journal 269
Reljanović M, ‘Vojni ombudsman – uporednopravna iskustva’ (2006) 1(3) Strani pravni život 359
Rivero J, Droit administratif (Dalloz 1975)
Rowat C.D, ‘The ombudsman in France’ (1984) 1 Canadian Public Administration 66
Rowat, C.R, The Ombudsman plan, The worldwide Spread of an Idea (2. Edition, University Press of America 1985)
Ruppel-Schlichting, K, ‘The independence of the Ombudsman in Namibia’ (2008) 2(31) in The independence of the judiciary in Namibia (Macmillan Education Namibia)
Stern J, ‘Finland’ u Kucsko-Stadlmayer (ed.), European Ombudsman – Institutions, A comparative legal analysis regarding, the multifaceted realisation od an idea (Wien – New York: Springer 2008)
Vidović L, Pravobranitelj za djecu (magistarski rad, Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu 2001)
PROPISI I DOKUMENTI
Redovan Godišnji izveštaj Zaštitnika građana za 2024. godinu (446-18/25) (RS)
Ustav Crne Gore (Službeni list, broj 1/2007, 38/2013) (ME)
Ustav na Republika Makedonija (Službeni vesnik, broj 1/1992, 31/1998, 91/2001, 84/2003, 107/2005, 3/2009, 49/2011, 6/2019, 36/2019) (NM)
Ustav Republike Hrvatske (Narodne novine, broj 56/1990, 135/1997, 08/1998,113/2000, 124/2000, 28/2001, 41/2001, 55/2001, 76/2010, 85/2010, 5/2014) (HR)
Ustav Republike Srbije (Službeni glasnik, broj 98/2006, 115/2021) (RS)
Ustava Republike Slovenije (Uradni list, broj 42/1997, 66/2000, 24/2003, 69/2004, 68/2006, 47/2013, 75/2016, 92/2021) (SLO)
Zakon o pučkom pravobranitelju (Narodne novine, broj 76/2012) (HR)
Zakon o ratifikaciji Opcionog protokola uz Konvenciju protiv torture i drugih surovih, neljudskih ili ponižavajućih kazni i postupaka (Službeni list, broj 16/2005, 2/2006, Službeni glasnik, broj 7/2011) (SCG, RS).
Zakon o ustavnom sudu (Službeni glasnik, broj 109/2007, 99/2011, 18/2013, 103/2015, 40/2015, 10/2023 i 92/2023) (RS)
Zakon o Zaštitniku građana (Službeni glasnik, broj 105/2021) (RS)
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Milan Rapajić, Dejan Logarušić
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors retain the copyright on the papers published in the Journal, but grant the right of first publication to the Journal. Papers accepted for publication or already published in Pravni vjesnik of the Faculty of Law in Osijek may be published by the author(s) in other publications only with proper notice of its previous publication in Pravni vjesnik.
