CONFERENCE “FREE LEGAL AID” HELD IN PALACE OF SERBIA
The Office for Kosovo and Metohia and European Union Delegation to Serbia continue to provide free legal aid through implementation of the project “Promotion and the protection of property rights of internally displaced persons, refugees and returnees upon readmission agreements”. The special significance of this EU project is in the representation of internally displaced persons before the courts in Kosovo and Metohia, thus one of the most vulnerable categories of population in the Republic of Serbia will be able to recover its illegally confiscated, damaged or destroyed property, was emphasized at Conference held on December 7th 2016 at the Palace of Serbia.
Team leader Declan O’Mahony said at the conference that there were at least 60.000 property return requests made by IDPs from Kosovo to which local courts in Kosovo failed to respond, adding that such a situation resulted in huge backlog of cases impossible to process within a reasonable timeframe. According to O’Mahony, within the EU’s project aimed at providing free legal aid to IDPs, refugees and returnees under readmission agreement, four separate units will be set up in Belgrade, Nis, Kraljevo and Vranje with two additional working units in Kosovska Mitrovica and Gracanica. The beneficiaries will have to meet clear criteria for the provision of legal aid, counselling and court representation, he explained.
Head of Operations at the EU Delegation to Serbia Nicolas Bizel described the project, which was already under implementation, as highly relevant as the right to legal aid was among the fundamental EU rights. He said that the Delegation would continue to be Serbia’s key partner in resolving that issue.
Deputy Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Dusan Kozarev warned that the abandoned houses, which once belonged to Serbs and other non-Albanians, were being systematically destroyed, adding that the Kosovo Property Agency is processing some 40,000 requests for the return of occupied property. Also, he said, there were around 18,000 compensations damaged or destroyed property claims lodged with courts.
The Project will provide necessary legal aid to help the clients entitled to assistance. Qualified and experienced senior advocates will lead teams of capable junior lawyers and fully trained and supervised law graduates who will provide this support. Over the next two years junior lawyers and law graduates will gain invaluable experience in working and managing a legal office and representing these vulnerable families.
These teams will benefit from a case management system that will integrate client, document, resources and time management databases that will ensure well-managed casework with a greater prospect of effective interventions and just outcomes for the clients, highlighted by representatives of the project at a conference which gather a large number of local and international experts professionally interested in this area, representatives of EUD and relevant institutions and persons who are in direct contact with potential beneficiaries of the project.