Serbia's former Commissioner: 24-hour curfew annuls basic right to free movement

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The introduction of a 24-hour curfew was not recorded in the international practice, Serbia's former Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Data Protection Rodoljub Sabic said on Thursday, commenting the idea of the total restriction of movements in the country, the Beta news agency reported.

„It’s the measure we have never faced before. And not only in Serbia. 24-hour curfew for the whole country is, as far as I know, something without precedent in the comparative international practice,“ Sabic told the VOICE centre.

He added that freedom of movement was the Constitutional right which could be limited due to preventing the infectious disease.

„However, none of the mentioned reasons justifies the limit of movements of the whole population. Besides, the curfew per se is controversial regardless of its duration. But limiting the right to free movement for 24 hours would not be a limit but the abolishment of that right,“ Sabic said.

 According to him, the way Serbia introduced the state of emergency „throws a permanent shadow on its legality,“ since it was not done by the Parliament but by three people – President, Parliament Speaker and Prime Minister, under the excuse that the „Parliament cannot meet,“ due to the epidemic.l

„In the democratic world, no executive decree is and must not be an obstacle to the sessions of the highest legislative institution,“ Sabilc told VOICE.

He recalled that even during Serb-Turkish war, both Balkan’s wars and in the WW I, „despite a horrible typhus epidemic, Serbia’s parliament held sessions, and the government did not take its jurisdiction.“