Skup�tina Disregards the Right to Independent Legislative Initiatives

18 September 2008

The Coalition for Free Access to Information appealed to the Skup�tina of the Republic of Serbia (the Parliament) to not ignore the constitutional right of the citizens to start independent legislative initiatives, regardless of the will of political parties and the state institutions.

The Coalition demands, on the occasion of September 15, Internation Democracy Day, from the Skup�tina to start the procedure for adoption of propsed changes to the Law on Free Access of Information and the Draft-Law on Classification of Information.

In accordance with the right to start legislative initiatives, the Coalition has filed for Parliamentary procedure the two proposals, together with the signatures of 72,000 voters who supported the initiative, back in December 2007.

According to the Coalition, in spite of the obligation on the part of the Skup�tina, listed in the Book of Procedures, to immediately forward such initiatives to the Government, parliamentary committees and Members of Parliament, the drafts are not yet put on the list of bills in procedure, and it is not known if they were distributed to the proper addresses at all.

- Lamentably, this is not an isolated cases of disregard for civic initiatives and obstruction of citizens who want to realize their constitutional rights. We call the Skup�tina to remove these obstacles and truly mark the Interational Democracy Day and promote citizen`s participation in democratic processes, says the Coalition.