On 27 June 2024, the Constitutional Court of Serbia issued a Decision initiating proceedings to assess the constitutionality of the Gender Equality Act. This decision implies that all activities undertaken based on the said Act, including executing individual acts and actions, are suspended until a final decision on its constitutionality is rendered.
Since the Constitutional Court has yet to issue a ruling in the initiated proceedings, the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue organized a webinar on the application of the Gender Equality Act following the issuance of the Constitutional Court's Decision.
A key piece of information presented by the Ministry during the webinar was that, due to the suspension of activities based on this Act, employers and public authorities are relieved of the obligation to adopt individual acts prescribed by the Gender Equality Act and its subordinate regulations. Given that the non-adoption of individual acts in accordance with the Act is currently not subject to sanctions, the Ministry informed webinar participants that, until the Constitutional Court issues its final decision, there will only be a recommendation directed to employers and public authorities to adopt these acts to update data on the implementation of gender equality across the Republic of Serbia.
Public authorities and employers who choose to submit individual acts will only do so for the period from 1 January 1 to 26 June 2024.
The Ministry emphasized during the webinar that, as of 1 January 2025, a new application will be launched on the Ministry's website, enabling employers and public authorities to electronically submit data and documentation. Consequently, the submission of annual reports and other documents to the Ministry will be exclusively conducted electronically, eliminating the need for postal submissions.
Through this application, employers and public authorities will be able to record data on gender equality implementation via "Form 1," with the option to update the entered data subsequently.
Considering the potential technical challenges during the initial phase of using the application, the Ministry has decided to extend the deadline for submitting annual reports to 30 January 2025.
By Marko Ilic, Senior Associate, and Dimitrije Stepanovic, Associate, JPM & Partners
