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Monitoring of Forensic Departments
The need for monitoring of forensic departments of
Serbia’s special psychiatric institutions was a logical follow-up of
the Committee’s years-long experience in monitoring of the country’s
prison reform, as well as of ongoing reforms in the domains of
psychiatry and social care.
Serbia’s legislation dealing with forensic
psychiatry is still either inadequate or insufficient. Therefore, in
late 2014 the Committee began working on the project aimed at
improving the situation of forensic psychiatry and that of persons
under sentence of mandatory psychiatric treatment.
The Committee’s team of experts – PhD Dordje
Alempijevic, PhD Vladimir Jovic and lawyers Jelena Mirkov-Subic and
Ljiljana Palibrk - has paid fact-finding missions to forensic
departments of four institutions: the Special Prison Hospital in
Belgrade and special psychiatric hospitals in Gornja Toponica nearby
Nis, “Dr. Slavoljub Bakalovic” in Vrsac, and “Sveti Vracevi” in Novi
Kenezevac. All the tours were conducted with the consent from the
ministries of healthcare and justice that expressed their interest
in the project and said would like to cooperate with the Committee
in this domain.
Thanks to good and constructive relations the
Committee has established with the above-mentioned institutions –
especially with their managements and employees – the team was able
to conduct thorough monitoring. Through inspection of medical and
legal files, and interviews conducted with staffs and patients alike
the team compiled important information indicative of basic problems
and possible avenues for their solution – notably through
multi-sectorial cooperation between relevant governmental
institutions.
In September the Committee will organize a study
tour to the Netherlands for thirteen domestic experts who will have
the opportunity of get deeper insights into this country’s
legislation and practice in forensic psychiatry. Apart from medical
doctors working for forensic departments the team in visit to the
Netherlands will include representatives of NPM (Citizens’ Ombudsman
Office) and parliamentary committees of healthcare, judiciary and
social care.
In cooperation with NPM and parliamentary
committees the project team will present the lessons learnt,
observations, conclusions and recommendations at a public hearing
either in the parliament or some of the committees.
This valuable project is implemented with the
assistance of the Royal Netherlands Embassy, Belgrade.
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