Serbia Justice Functional Review

Internal Performance Assessment > Human Resource Management

Gender equity in employment in the Serbian judiciary is generally appropriate. Figures submitted to the CEPEJ by Serbia (see Table 37) show more female than male professional judges in courts at all levels.⁸⁵¹ Among Court Presidents at first instance courts, the proportion of women is greater than men. This is reflected in the proportion of candidates for presidency of courts that are women.⁸⁵² However, among Court Presidents at the second instance, men far outnumber women (see Table 38).

‘Diversity within the judiciary will enable the public to trust and accept the judiciary as a whole… it should be open and access should be provided to all qualified persons in all sectors of society’’ The Venice Commission
The vast majority of non-judge staff in the courts are women.⁸⁵⁵ Of the 11,634 total non-judge staff in 2012, 10,345 (89 percent) were women according to the 2012 data submitted to the CEPEJ by Serbia.
Of the total number of prosecutors, 55 percent are women. While the proportion of women is higher in basic than higher level PPOs, women represent close to 50 percent of all prosecutors at all levels other than the Office of Organized Crime (see Table 39).

In contrast of the eight deputies of the Prosecutor's Office for War Crimes, seven are male and one is female. Assignment to the Office for War Crimes carries significant prestige, and the salary of deputies there is approximately three times that of a regular prosecutor. The pattern of higher status and pay by prosecutor positions filled by males can be seen in gender of heads of PPOs (see Table 40).

According to data submitted to the CEPEJ by Serbia for 2012,⁸⁵⁸ there are no specific provisions for facilitating gender equality within the procedure for recruiting or promoting judges or prosecutors’ framework. This may reflect the fact the majority of judges and prosecutors are women.
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, via the IMG, is working with the HJC to enhance equal opportunity in both employment in and access to the judiciary.⁸⁵⁹ IMG recommends the HJC to increase its capacity in assessing and implementing equal opportunity practices throughout the court system. In particular, IMG encourages the HJC to ensure that a transparent process for recruiting the best candidates for judicial positions and for judicial disciplines is established regardless of gender. It also recommends that the HJC promote cross-sectorial cooperation to promote equal opportunity.